World's largest corporations seek clarity on climate change regulation

Washington, September 22 : The senior management of the world's largest corporations have called for greater visibility on climate change related policy in order to better anticipate the impact of regulation driven carbon markets and carbon prices.

Global corporations view climate change as a driver of risk and opportunity and have cited clear regulation as key to managing the impacts, in this year's findings from the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which includes exclusive data from 1550 of the world's major companies on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change related strategies.

Despite the uncertainty with regard to regulation the majority of global companies are acting to reduce their emissions.

74 percent are now reporting emissions reduction targets, showing companies are increasingly taking climate change mitigation seriously.

The findings published by the CDP, which represents some 385 institutional investors with 57 trillion dollars in assets under management, also revealed the Utilities sector to be the most transparent in their reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, with 93 percent responding to CDP.

In contrast, the Oil and Gas sector (an early adopter of carbon reporting) performed relatively poorly with a response rate of just 69 percent.

Carbon disclosure and climate change reporting is becoming critical for investors to fully assess their risks, liabilities and opportunities within their portfolios.

According to Paul Dickinson, CEO of CDP, "We can see from 2008 responses to CDP a marked increase in levels of engagement from companies, with more companies reporting than ever before."

"With increased regulation on the horizon, investors are requiring this information to better understand the credit worthiness of companies in their portfolio and how climate change might affect their profitability," he added.

Many companies perceive regulation as a catalyst for opportunities to commercialize new products and services, generate additional income from emissions reduction programs via carbon credits; and invest in renewable energy projects.

ANI