Many of world's largest cos addressing climate change
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
NEW YORK: A majority of the world's 500 largest publicly traded companies have implemented greenhouse-gas emission reduction plans, according to a study released Monday.
The yearly report, issued by a group of investors called the Carbon Disclosure Project, looks at the effect of climate change on company value and gauges what companies are doing to manage the associated risks.
The group is composed of 315 investors with a total of $41 trillion in assets under management, including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co and Calpers, the California pension fund.
The survey was sent to a total of 2,400 companies, of which 1,300 companies responded, including 76 per cent of the world's largest 500 companies, by market capitalisation, according to the report. The group has been gathering information from major companies about their views and response to climate change since 2000.
About 95 per cent of companies surveyed that consider climate change to present a commercial risk have implemented a greenhouse-gas reduction programme, with a target and timeline, according to the report. About 34 per cent of companies surveyed said they used renewables for a portion of the energy they used. The survey also found that more companies are using standardised carbon accounting methods, such as the GHG Protocol.
The companies that reported their emissions for the survey represent 14 per cent of all global, man-made greenhouse-gas emissions, or nearly 7 trillion tons of carbon, according to the report.
The most carbon-intensive sectors, including integrated oil and gas, power generation and utilities, and metals, mining and steel, produced about 70 per cent of the total carbon emissions, about 2.3 trillion tons the report said. As a group, those sectors reported increased emissions from previous year's surveys. However, individual companies reported reductions in their emissions from prior years, the report noted.
The group criticised 34 per cent of "carbon-intensive" companies surveyed that didn't have someone on the board or upper management responsible for climate change. " This indicates that improved climate awareness does not mean that climate change has been given the necessary management attention in carbon-intensive companies, " the group said.
The London-based investor group noted that climate change has received an " unprecedented" amount of attention in the last year, by governments on all levels, and also in the private sector. Many of those developments have occurred in the US, where momentum has grown in Congress to create a federal carbon mandate in efforts that have been backed by energy companies and other carbon- intensive firms. The report pointed to a US Supreme Court decision this year that found that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, as a major step in the development of US climate policy.
Meanwhile, carbon markets worldwide have grown. About 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide were traded in 2006 at a value of $29 billion, nearly double the amount of carbon traded in 2005 for about $12.5 billion, according to the report.
The investor group said it was encouraged by the results of the survey, as they show that at many of the world's largest companies, "the gap between awareness and action appears to be narrowing." — Internet
The yearly report, issued by a group of investors called the Carbon Disclosure Project, looks at the effect of climate change on company value and gauges what companies are doing to manage the associated risks.
The group is composed of 315 investors with a total of $41 trillion in assets under management, including Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch & Co and Calpers, the California pension fund.
The survey was sent to a total of 2,400 companies, of which 1,300 companies responded, including 76 per cent of the world's largest 500 companies, by market capitalisation, according to the report. The group has been gathering information from major companies about their views and response to climate change since 2000.
About 95 per cent of companies surveyed that consider climate change to present a commercial risk have implemented a greenhouse-gas reduction programme, with a target and timeline, according to the report. About 34 per cent of companies surveyed said they used renewables for a portion of the energy they used. The survey also found that more companies are using standardised carbon accounting methods, such as the GHG Protocol.
The companies that reported their emissions for the survey represent 14 per cent of all global, man-made greenhouse-gas emissions, or nearly 7 trillion tons of carbon, according to the report.
The most carbon-intensive sectors, including integrated oil and gas, power generation and utilities, and metals, mining and steel, produced about 70 per cent of the total carbon emissions, about 2.3 trillion tons the report said. As a group, those sectors reported increased emissions from previous year's surveys. However, individual companies reported reductions in their emissions from prior years, the report noted.
The group criticised 34 per cent of "carbon-intensive" companies surveyed that didn't have someone on the board or upper management responsible for climate change. " This indicates that improved climate awareness does not mean that climate change has been given the necessary management attention in carbon-intensive companies, " the group said.
The London-based investor group noted that climate change has received an " unprecedented" amount of attention in the last year, by governments on all levels, and also in the private sector. Many of those developments have occurred in the US, where momentum has grown in Congress to create a federal carbon mandate in efforts that have been backed by energy companies and other carbon- intensive firms. The report pointed to a US Supreme Court decision this year that found that the federal Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases, as a major step in the development of US climate policy.
Meanwhile, carbon markets worldwide have grown. About 1.6 billion tons of carbon dioxide were traded in 2006 at a value of $29 billion, nearly double the amount of carbon traded in 2005 for about $12.5 billion, according to the report.
The investor group said it was encouraged by the results of the survey, as they show that at many of the world's largest companies, "the gap between awareness and action appears to be narrowing." — Internet