Carbon Disclosure Project

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Carbon Disclosure Project

The Carbon Disclosure Project is an international non-profit organization focused on corporate and municipal disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions, climate risk, water use, and forest impacts. It engages companies, investors, cities and regions through standardized questionnaires, scoring systems and public databases to inform decision-making by financial institutions such as BlackRock, Vanguard Group, State Street Corporation, and asset managers including Blackstone and KKR. The project collaborates with intergovernmental and non-governmental entities like United Nations Environment Programme, World Wildlife Fund, Global Reporting Initiative, and International Finance Corporation to align disclosure with investor demands and policy frameworks such as Paris Agreement and Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

Overview

The organization operates global disclosure platforms addressing emissions, climate risk, water security, and deforestation. It targets corporate respondents including constituents of indices like FTSE 100, S&P 500, MSCI World, and Nikkei 225, and municipal actors such as New York City, London Borough of Camden, and Sydney. Stakeholders include investors such as Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, CalPERS, PensionDanmark and development institutions including European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and Asian Development Bank. The project’s outputs are used by research institutions like Imperial College London, Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and think tanks such as Chatham House and Brookings Institution.

Founded in 2000 by Paul Dickinson and Tom Burke, the initiative grew from dialogues among investors, NGOs and corporations including Shell, BP, Unilever, PepsiCo and HSBC. Early partnerships involved Environment Agency and foundations like Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation. During the 2000s it expanded reporting protocols and integrated with standards developed by Global Reporting Initiative and the Carbon Trust. In the 2010s the project revised methodologies aligned with frameworks promoted at conferences like the United Nations Climate Change Conference and through collaborations with CDSB and TCFD. Major milestones include global scoring rollouts and incorporation of supply-chain considerations influenced by work at World Economic Forum and research from Columbia University.

Governance comprises a board and advisory panels drawing members from corporations, investor coalitions and NGOs such as Oxfam, WWF, Friends of the Earth, and firms like Accenture and Deloitte. Funding sources include investor signatories—e.g., Aviva Investors, Legal & General Investment Management—philanthropic grants from entities like Anonymous Foundation and program fees charged to reporting organizations. The board has included representatives with backgrounds at institutions like European Investment Bank, International Monetary Fund, Goldman Sachs and academic seats from London School of Economics and University of Oxford. The project has also received in-kind technical support from consultancies including McKinsey & Company and ERM.

Program areas cover climate change, water security and forests with standardized questionnaires, sector guidance and scoring methodologies. Methodological development has sourced expert input from Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, International Energy Agency, Food and Agriculture Organization, and sector groups like International Council on Mining and Metals. The climate questionnaire requests scope 1, scope 2 and scope 3 emissions data consistent with protocols from Greenhouse Gas Protocol and accounting practices referenced by Securities and Exchange Commission. Scoring tiers such as disclosure, awareness and leadership parallel investor engagement tools used by Carbon Tracker Initiative and CDSB. Data platforms enable cross-referencing with indices and datasets from Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and MSCI ESG Research.

Participation is voluntary but encouraged through investor requests and regulatory developments in jurisdictions like United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, Canada and United States. Major corporate reporters have included Apple Inc., Microsoft, Amazon (company), Toyota Motor Corporation, ExxonMobil, Chevron Corporation, TotalEnergies, Siemens, IKEA, and Coca-Cola Company. Municipal and regional participants include Copenhagen, Los Angeles, São Paulo, and Province of Quebec. Investors use disclosed scores in stewardship activities alongside proxy voting practices at firms such as BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors. Academic studies from Stanford University and Yale University analyze reporting uptake and data quality.

Critiques have focused on methodological transparency, perceived corporate greenwashing, and the efficacy of voluntary disclosure compared with mandatory reporting regimes advocated by European Commission and regulators such as Financial Conduct Authority and Securities and Exchange Commission. NGOs including Friends of the Earth and Corporate Accountability International have challenged scoring outcomes and corporate responses from emitters like Gazprom and ArcelorMittal. Debates also involve reliance on self-reported data questioned in analyses by The Guardian and investigative work by ProPublica and academic critiques from University of Cambridge and London School of Economics. Controversies erupted when major respondents withdrew or questioned the cost of reporting amid scrutiny from investor groups like Ceres.

The project influenced investor stewardship, corporate climate strategies, and regulatory agendas by providing standardized disclosure that feeds into indices such as Dow Jones Sustainability Index and investor tools by CDP Investors. Its datasets have been cited in policy consultations at European Commission and UNFCCC negotiations, and used by rating agencies including Moody's Investors Service, S&P Global Ratings, and Fitch Ratings for climate risk assessment. Market impacts include informing capital allocation decisions at asset managers like BlackRock and prompting corporate commitments by firms such as Unilever and Iberdrola. Research leveraging the project’s data has been published in journals associated with Nature, Science, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.