New Consortium to Develop Standard Framework for Company Reporting of Climate Risks
26 January 2007
The World Economic Forum announced today the formation of a new international partnership of seven organizations to establish a generally accepted framework for climate risk-related reporting by corporations.
Founding members of the institutional consortium—the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB)—include the California Climate Action Registry, Carbon Disclosure Project, Ceres, The Climate Group, International Emissions Trading Association, World Economic Forum Global Greenhouse Gas Register and World Resources Institute.
CDSB member organizations have agreed to align their core requests for information from companies in order to ensure that they report climate change-related information in a standardized way that facilitates easier comparative analysis by investors, managers and the public. The focus will be on the disclosure of the following key climate issues in company annual reports:
Total emissions
Assessment of the physical risks of climate change
Assessment of the regulatory risks of climate change
Strategic analysis of climate risk and emissions management
Although in recent years there has been much progress in raising awareness of the importance of climate-related disclosure among corporations and their boards and shareholders, reporting of comparable information in annual reports remains the exception rather than the rule.
This is a welcome effort to streamline the growing demands on companies and to improve objectivity for disclosure of climate-related information.
—Jorma Ollila, Chairman, Royal Dutch Shell Group
It’s time to raise the bar on corporate disclosure of carbon emissions reporting. Adopting this standard is key to addressing the climate issue.
—Jim Rogers, Chairman and CEO, Duke Energy Corporation
An advisory committee is being formed that will include industrial, financial services and accounting firms as well as other key stakeholders. In preparation, CDSB members met in Davos with representatives of Alcan; American International Group; Capital Group; Duke Energy Corporation; Ernst and Young; Royal Dutch/Shell; JP Morgan Chase; PricewaterhouseCoopers; SUN Group; Swiss Re and Tokyo Electric Power as well as United Kingdom Environment Minister Milliband; California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez; and United Nations Environment Programme Director General Achim Steiner.
This initiative is a key step to improving and standardizing company disclosure on the risks and opportunities from climate change, whether from new regulations, physical impacts or growing global demand for clean technology products. Ceres looks forward to collaborating with US investors to develop better tools for evaluating and analysing business exposure to climate change.
—Mindy S. Lubber, President of Ceres
I'd like to see such reports from all oil companies. See if BP is really that much cleaner than their competitors as their advertisements claim.
Posted by: Patrick | 26 January 2007 at 11:11 AM
BP, Shell, and Norsk Hydro all have major current and upcoming renwable energy projects.
_BP is a major global solar energy player, and one leading the charge on butanol...though they have many issues to deal with in their petroleum operations.
_Shell put in a billion ($) in renewables/alternatives...vs $7 billion in crude oil/natl gas ops.
_Norsk Hydro may put its offshore spar platform experience into creating wind farms in the North Sea, with enormous energy potential. Part of the energy derived from such a scheme may power aluminum production, driving the costs (environmental and $€¥) down.
Posted by: allen_xl_Z | 26 January 2007 at 11:27 AM
Yes, but how efficient are BP's petroleum operations (energy, emissions and cost) versus its competitors is what I want to know. Not just that they produce X percentage in renewable.
Posted by: Patrick | 26 January 2007 at 11:58 AM
If I MUST get petroleum from a company than I would prefer to get it from the cleanest & most efficient company, not just the company who has renewable energy on the side. If I want renewable energy, then I would go to BP (unless other companies do renewable better).
Posted by: Patrick | 26 January 2007 at 12:01 PM