Carbon Disclosure Project

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an organisation based in the United Kingdom which works with shareholders and corporations to disclose the greenhouse gas emissions of major corporations.

In 2008, it published the emissions data for 1550 of the world's largest corporations, accounting for 26% of global anthropogenic emissions.

The CDP represents 551 institutional investors, with a combined $71 trillion under management.

Background

International agreements such as the Kyoto Protocol have proved problematic, and individual governments have been reluctant to develop stringent national limits on emissions for fear of big companies relocating their factories and jobs to nations with laxer regulatory regimes. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) attempts to side step these national interests by focusing on individual companies rather than on nations. CDP brings together institutional investors to focus attention on carbon emissions, energy usage and reduction – wherever companies and assets may be located.

Some corporations have higher greenhouse gas emissions than individual nation states. Some leading companies have moved to become carbon neutral, but for others there is scope to reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions by adoption of energy efficiency methods and business planning.

Mechanism

CDP works with 3,000 of the largest corporations in the world to help them ensure that an effective carbon emissions / reductions strategy is made integral to their...
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