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The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a collaboration of over 315 institutional investors with assets under management of more than $41 trillion.  Since 2002, the CDP have sent a questionnaire to the largest companies in America and the United Kingdon, covering the top FT500 and S&P top 500 companies.  The questionnaire elicits detailed information on the risks and opportunities posed to the companies by climate change. The companies' responses to the questionnaire, and an analysis of the responses, were published yesterday in the CDP reports and on the CDP website.

The CDP responses and reports provide the largest and most comprehensive database of strategies from the world's largest corporations regarding the impact of climate change on shareholder value.

At the publication event, the CDP chairman emphasised the importance of knowledge and economic viability (and profit) as "an essential step towards understanding climate change."

Clinton went on to give examples where embracing efficiency actually increases jobs: "In New York City there are 950,000 buildings.  On a day when the ambient temperature is 90°, the surface temperature on an ordinary tar roof reaches up to 150°.  By retrofitting these roofs with a green roof would reduce this temperature down to 80°.  With the green roof energy bills will be reduced, and this would create real jobs, with real people on the roofs."

Disclosure
Just last week, a coalition of investors and state government officials petitioned the US Securities and Exchange Commission  (SEC) to require companies to disclose to shareholders the risks global warming poses to their business.

The letter the coalition sent said:
"The transition to a carbon constrained economy is underway, and public access to material information concerning the risks and opportunities that companies face, and their means of addressing those risks and opportunities, is vital to investors."

The CDP, according to its chairman, is a "safe and reliable place for companies to report" their climate disclosure and governance practices.  The purpose of the CDP is to "facilitate dialog between investors and institutions."

Every response has been graded and ranked based on climate disclosure and governance practices. FT500 companies with leading disclosure practice are highlighted in the Climate Disclosure Leadership Index (CDLI), which includes corporations such as Hewlett Packard, Citigroup, Coca Cola, Wal-Mart, Royal Bank of Scotland, Allianz and Unilever. The S&P500 report rates companies under the Climate Governance Index on disclosure, emissions reductions and strategy, with leaders including DuPont, General Motors, Consolidated Edison, Alcoa, United Technologies and 3M.

FT500 Report Findings: The FT500 report is based on responses provided by corporations within the Financial Times sample of the 500 largest listed companies globally. The report concludes that the world's corporate giants have made "significant progress in understanding and disclosing their positions relative to the risks and opportunities associated with climate change." In particular, the report highlights a narrowing gap between climate awareness and action among the FT500.

Despite an increase in the response rates and quality of disclosure in both the FT500 and the S&P500, there is "still a minority of companies who are not engaged in the issues of climate change and who fail to respond to investors' request for disclosure through CDP." In many cases these companies have not considered the risks or opportunities associated with climate change within their business strategy.

Paul Dickinson, CEO of CDP said:
"Increasingly, investors view good carbon management as a sign of good corporate management. Our investors are using the quality of the disclosure as a very useful tool to assess how seriously a company is taking the issues of climate change. As CDP data plays an increasingly important role in informing investors on a company's approach to climate change, the pressure is increasing on companies to respond. And by moving CDP data collection into company supply chain management, CDP's reach will grow enormously."