- 263 financial institutions with over US$31 trillion in assets join CDP’s 2022 campaign calling on the world’s highest impact companies to disclose environmental data;
- Tesla Inc, Saudi Aramco, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Glencore, Roche Holding AG, Swatch Group, Volvo Group among 1,473 companies from 50 countries targeted as part of the campaign;
- This year’s campaign attracted record levels of participation, with a 57% annual increase in the number of financial institutions requesting corporate environmental disclosure;
- The number of companies asked to disclose to the CDP water and forest questionnaires rose by 51% and 37% respectively compared to 2021;
- The 2021 campaign demonstrated that companies are more than twice as likely to disclose their environmental impact when directly engaged.
London; June 29, 2022: 263 financial institutions from nearly 29 countries, including Amundi, Aviva, Cathay Financial Holdings, Insight Investment, La Banque Postale, Legal and General, Nuveen, Schroders, Société Générale Private Wealth Management and Union Investment are urging non-disclosing companies with a high environmental impact to disclose data through CDP, the non-profit that runs the world’s largest environmental disclosure system.
The companies targeted, including Tesla, Exxon Mobil, Saudi Aramco and Glencore, cover over US$24 trillion (as of 22 June 2022) in global market capitalization and are estimated to collectively emit more than 4,800 megatonnes (Mt) of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) annually.
The majority (72%) of companies selected in this year’s campaign were requested to disclose on at least their impact on climate change. However, there was a significant uplift in the number of companies engaged on their water and forests related impact, with a 51% and 36% uplift in the number of companies engaged compared to last year. This demonstrates an increasing awareness of the interrelatedness of the climate and nature crisis and a growing call from the capital markets for corporate transparency on water and forest related issues.
A quarter (25%) of the companies selected by investors in this year’s campaign already disclose through CDP on one theme; either climate change, forests or water security. They are included in the campaign because they do not yet disclose data on another theme, which has been identified as material for them.
General Electric Company and Geox are among the list of companies that were targeted in this campaign only to disclose their water-related data. Similarly, Toyota Motor Corporation and Gruppo Mastrotto Spa were targeted to only to disclose on their forest-related data.
The direct engagement is coordinated by CDP’s 2022 Non-Disclosure Campaign (NDC), which aims to increase disclosure among companies that have either never disclosed, or stopped disclosing, through CDP.
The campaign has seen an average 38% year-on-year growth in participation from financial institutions, since inception in 2017, with a 57% uplift compared to last year. This reflects the broader momentum of net-zero target setting and alliances, including the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), which requires signatories to set science-based targets to reach net-zero no later than 2050.
In order to meet these commitments, investors and financial institutions require environmental disclosure from the companies in their portfolios so that they can understand and manage their financed environmental impact.
Last year’s Non-Disclosure Campaign resulted in the highest response rate to date, with nearly 60% more companies disclosing, after being targeted, compared to 2020. It also showed that companies are more than twice as likely to disclose through CDP when they are directly engaged by investors to do so.
Laurent Babikian, Joint Global Director of Capital Markets at CDP, commented: “Engagement is critical to driving disclosure, and disclosure is the first step to environmental action. Climate change, deforestation and water security present material risks to investments, and companies that are failing to disclose their impact risk trailing behind their competitors in their access to capital.
We are encouraged by the continued growth and success of this annual campaign and the record levels of participation this year. With a series of mandatory environmental disclosure requirements on the horizon in regions including the US, UK, Japan, EU, New Zealand and India, non-disclosure will no longer be an option for many of these companies.”
Elodie Laugel, Chief Responsible Investment Officer at Amundi commented: “Amundi has been actively supporting CDP’s Non-Disclosure Campaign since its launch in 2017. The need for transparent and comparable corporate disclosure through a well-articulated framework on key environmental topics (such as climate, water, and deforestation) is more important than ever. CDP has been a standard setter for corporate disclosure since its inception and continues to be of great value to investors.”
Takayuki Haruna, Managing Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer at Japan Post Insurance commented: “Japan Post Insurance and other institutional investors require uniform standards in gaining a cross-sectional understanding of climate change-related behaviors of investee companies. CDP’s climate change questions are consistent with the TCFD and comprehensive, and we therefore hope that more companies will make disclosures based on this uniform standard. We believe that through annual responses to the CDP, companies will be able to identify and efficiently address their own issues, which will also lead to higher valuation in the capital markets.”
Financial institutions will be engaging with companies over the summer while CDP’s disclosure system is open. Companies will be asked to submit their response to investors via the CDP online response system.
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Notes to editor
- A full list of the companies being targeted in the campaign can be found here. Please note that some companies may already disclose on one theme or more, but be targeted for another that is believed to also be material to their business.
- CDP’s Non-Disclosure Campaign runs in parallel to our annual disclosure request. The annual investor disclosure request is sent out by CDP and endorsed by our investor signatories but doesn’t require direct investor engagement. The Non-Disclosure Campaign on the other hand provides an opportunity for investors to engage companies directly on disclosure – CDP provides support but the direct engagement is led by investors. The annual disclosure request has been running since 2002 whereas this campaign has been running since 2017.
- Investors that are involved with CDP’s Non-Disclosure Campaign are counted as active on the Corporate Engagement focus area of The Investor Agenda.
For more information, or exclusive interviews, please contact:
- Sara Firouzyar, CDP, tel. +44 (0) 2038 183 973 | email: [email protected]
About CDP
CDP is a global non-profit that runs the world’s environmental disclosure system for companies, cities, states and regions. Founded in 2000 and working with more than 680 investors with over $130 trillion in assets, CDP pioneered using capital markets and corporate procurement to motivate companies to disclose their environmental impacts, and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Over 14,000 organizations around the world disclosed data through CDP in 2021, including more than 13,000 companies worth over 64% of global market capitalization, and over 1,100 cities, states and regions. Fully TCFD aligned, CDP holds the largest 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. CDP is a founding member of the Science Based Targets initiative, We Mean Business Coalition, The Investor Agenda and the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative. Visit cdp.net or follow us @CDP to find out more.