The Charity Commission board has agreed to add the issue of environmental responsibility to its guidance documents the Hallmarks of an Effective Charity (CC10) and, when next updated, the Essential Trustee (CC3).

The issue was raised at a board meeting last week, at the request of the ministerial third sector task force on climate change.

A spokeswoman for the Commission confirmed that the board had been “keen to reflect the existing good practice” that many charities are adopting.

However, the board decided that climate change should not be included the guidance, only charities' environmental responsibility and action to promote sustainability.

The spokeswoman also stated that the board had also judged that the guidance should not dictate how charities fulfil these aims, as “charities are themselves best placed to decide what their response should be”, and because the board wanted to ensure that "particularly smaller charities did not feel they were having a new burden placed upon them”.