CDP's Alignment with Disclosure Frameworks and Standards

Status of alignment in 2024: Aligned with the IFRS S2 standard issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). 

CDP’s 2024 corporate questionnaire is aligned with the IFRS S2 (ISSB) climate standard. In addition to the value of the disclosed dataset itself, the questionnaire provides an effective tool to support companies on their path to IFRS S2 (ISSB) compliance. Guidance will be available to support disclosers and stakeholders in understanding their progress against IFRS S2 requirements. 

The IFRS S2 specifies what companies should report in terms of Governance, Strategy, Risk and Opportunity Management, including the processes used to identify, assess and prioritize risks and opportunities, metrics and targets, including Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. It fully incorporates, and builds from, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations, to which CDP is already fully aligned. 

Status of alignment in 2025: High degree of interoperability.

CDP's corporate questionnaire and the ESRS share extensive commonality, demonstrated by the CDP-ESRS E1 correspondence mapping.

As a result of the ongoing collaboration between CDP and the European standard-setter, EFRAG, joint mapping efforts have revealed a substantial commonality between CDP's questionnaire and the ESRS climate standard (ESRS E1), including in key areas such as transition plans, targets, emissions and internal carbon pricing. By helping companies to identify synergies in data collected for CDP and ESRS reporting, the mapping will reduce complexity, build reporting efficiency and enhance transparency for stakeholders.

As a key ESRS market adoption partner for EFRAG – and covering two-thirds of the world’s stock market – the CDP environmental disclosure system will be a major tool for accessing ESRS-aligned data.

Status of alignment in 2024: Currently partially aligned.  

In October 2023, CDP announced its intention to align with the TNFD recommendations. This will ensure investors, purchasers and policymakers can access nature-related information in a consistent and comparable standardized format. CDP already has partial alignment – particularly where TNFD parallels the TCFD – as the TNFD framework is rooted in the TCFD recommendations, with which CDP is already aligned. This gives us a running start as specific parts of CDP’s questionnaires can be adapted relatively easily to reflect aspects of the TNFD framework too (including those around governance, strategy, risks and opportunities disclosure).  

CDP has committed to expanding coverage across all key environmental issues. This will enable us to provide full disclosure coverage of TNFD’s framework. The TNFD framework will enable CDP to further accelerate our incorporation of more environmental topics by providing a robust set of good practice indicators on areas such as oceans and land.

Status of alignment in 2024: Aligned with TCFD recommendations. 

In 2018, CDP aligned with the TCFD's recommendations, which forms the basis of numerous mandatory disclosure regulations. 

By translating the TCFD recommendations and pillars into actual disclosure questions and a standardized annual format, CDP provides investors and disclosers with a unique platform where the TCFD Framework can be brought into real-world practice. Companies who disclose through CDP are doing so in line with the TCFD recommendations in a comparable and consistent way. As a result, CDP has the largest TCFD-aligned environmental database in the world, and CDP scores are widely used to drive investment and procurement decisions towards a zero carbon, sustainable and resilient economy. 

Whilst TCFD adoption remains relevant across the global economy, the taskforce has disbanded, and its responsibilities have folded into the IFRS Foundation from 2024.

For more information, read our Technical Note. 

GRI and CDP work together to align best practice and avoid duplication of disclosure effort to ease the reporting burden for the thousands of companies that report through CDP and the GRI Standards. Learn more on our climate change and water security pages. 

CDP is committed to integrating best practice sustainable finance taxonomy criteria into our disclosure system. Our questionnaire pilots taxonomy questions on EU Taxonomy objectives and collects data on companies' eligibility and financial accounting alignment.