Anglo American, Diageo, Mondi, Morgan Crucible, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever are among the companies leading the Carbon Disclosure Project’s annual report ranking the carbon reporting and disclosure efforts of FTSE 350 companies.
“The Future of Reporting: CDP FTSE 350 Climate Change Report 2012,” which was co-written by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that more than two-thirds of the 240 FTSE companies that responded to CDP already comply with mandatory carbon reporting regulations set to begin next year in the UK.
Nearly 93 percent of FTSE companies that responded already report direct and purchased energy-related emissions, know as Scope 1 and Scope 2, according to the report. About 64 percent of respondents include this emissions data in financial reports.
The UK government announced this summer it would require all companies listed on the main market of the London Stock Exchange to publish the full details of their greenhouse gas emissions. The proposed legislation covers Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions.
It’s estimated the policy will save four million tons of CO2 emissions by 2021. The UK has made a commitment to cut its carbon emissions to 50 percent of 1990 levels by 2025.
This year 35 companies made the UK Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index (see chart), which ranks the highest scoring companies for disclosure, and includes companies within the top 10 percent of the reporting population. The report found that 94 percent of companies on the index integrate climate change into their business strategies, compared with 49 percent of the remaining FTSE sample of companies that disclose information to the CDP.
About 80 percent of companies in the CDLI already include emissions data in their financial reports; and 74 percent of these CDLI companies consider themselves to have a strategic advantage relating to climate change, as opposed to 33 percent of UK reporting companies, the report said.
When CDP launched its FTSE 350 report in 2006, about 49 percent of companies responded and about 83 percent of the FTSE 100 participated in the survey. This year, 240 companies, or 69 percent, of the FTSE 350 responded, including 96 percent of the FTSE 100.
The FTSE Group and its partners CDP and benchmarking specialist ENDS Carbon launched four carbon-related indexes in February designed to help investors reduce the long-term investment risks associated with climate change.
The four indexes, of which two are based in Australia, and one each in Japan and the Europe-wide market, are part of the FTSE CDP Carbon Strategy Index Series, and join two existing UK-based FTSE carbon indexes.