|
May 19, 2004
Carbon Disclosure Project Report and Greenhouse Gas Protocol Release Second Editions
by William Baue
Climate change initiatives get a significant boost this month with the release of two revised
editions of a report and a protocol for addressing global warming.
SocialFunds.com --
Today in London and Hong Kong, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is releasing its second report on how companies in the
FT500 Global Index are addressing climate change, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and the shift to
a carbon-constrained economy. Earlier this month, the World Business Council for Sustainable
Development (WBCSD) and the World
Resources Institute (WRI) released the second
edition of their Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which has become the most widely used global
standard for corporate accounting of GHG emissions. Taken together, these two developments
represent a significant step forward in facilitating corporate mitigation of climate risk.
 Investor and corporate attention to climate
risk has heightened since the first CDP report (CDP1) was released in February 2003. Membership in
the CDP since then has gone from 35 institutional investors representing $4.5 trillion in assets to
95 groups with over $10 trillion--the equivalent of the 2003 US Gross Domestic Product. And while
less than half (47 percent) of FT500 companies responded to the CDP1 questionnaire, significantly
more than half (59 percent) responded to the questionnaire for the second report (CDP2). Of the
respondents, a "clear majority" considers climate change as a business risk and a business
opportunity.
"Investors are saying that climate change can impact shareholder value both
positively and negatively, and the market needs information to assess and value the issue," said
James Cameron, CDP chair.
CDP2 includes the Climate Leadership Index (CLI), a list of 50
companies determined by report author Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, a global sustainability
research firm, to have best addressed a wide range of climate change issues in their sector.
Factors assessed included emissions management, reporting, and trading, and the establishment of
emissions targets. Climate Leaders include AEP (ticker: AEP), BP (BP), BHP Billiton (BHP), Citigroup (C), Dow (DOW), Ford (F), International
Paper (IP), Swiss
Re (TUKN.SW),
Unilever (UN),
and UPS (UPS).
CDP2 also offers examples that provide a stark contrast on how companies in the same
sector are approaching climate change.
United Health Care Group (UNH) replied that "our mission is
to facilitate and advance health . . . As such, impacts from climate change would be indirect or
non-existent." Other companies, such as Bayer (BAYG), Microsoft (MSFT), and Sara Lee
(SLE), responded
similarly, revealing an ostrich-like strategy of sticking their heads in the sand.
On
the other hand, Baxter (BAX), another healthcare company,
replied that it "views climate change as one of the most significant environmental challenges
facing mankind today" and that it "uses the WBCSD GHG Protocol . . . to calculate all GHG
emissions." GE (GE) similarly responded that it uses
the WBCSD/WRI GHG Protocol, and CDP2 noted that the use of such standardized emissions
measurement systems is on the rise.
One of the strengths of the GHG Protocol is the
fact that is serves as a model or basis for so many other emissions reporting, reduction, and
trading programs. These include the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Climate
Leaders Initiative, the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX), and the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme
(ETS). The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has also signaled its intent to be
compatible with the GHG Protocol.
"The widespread adoption of the protocol contributes
significantly to the standardization and harmonization of GHG accounting and reporting frameworks
worldwide," said Björn Stigson, president of WBCSD.
Changes to the revised edition of the
GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard, as it is officially known, include
the addition of more case studies, annexes, and guidance. In response to company requests, the
revised edition also includes an entire new chapter on how to move from developing emissions
inventories to setting credible GHG reduction targets.
The GHG Protocol Corporate
Standard stipulates that it should not be used to quantify reductions from GHG mitigation
projects, as the WRI and WBCSD intend to release the GHG Protocol Project Quantification
Standard for this purpose.
©
SRI World Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Top
| 
