The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) season 2023 will officially start on April 17. Already in January of this year CDP has released its 2023 questionnaire and reporting guidances for Forest, Water Security, and Climate Change. The updated scoring methodologies for all questionnaires, i.e. the exact information on how CDP scores each question, was released in March. As of next week, CDP’s Online Response System (ORS) will open its doors. The deadline to submit responses to the questionnaires this year is 26 July.
Until then, companies which have been asked through CDP’s Supply Chain or Investor programs can submit their responses using the ORS. In 2022, 746 investors and more than 280 supply chain members, i.e. large purchasers, have asked companies in their value chain to disclose information using the CDP questionnaires. Accordingly, more than 18,700 companies reported through CDP. With companies representing more than 50% of global market value, CDP is an important driver of corporate environmental transparency.
Changes to the Climate Change Questionnaire
Compared to previous years, CDP has introduced some significant changes in its Climate Change questionnaire. In general, the questionnaire changes follow CDP’s five-year strategy that aims at a more strategic inclusion of sustainability-related topics in corporate governance and decision-making. The grace period for scoring of the biodiversity chapter, which was added in 2022, will continue, i.e. this chapter will again not be scored. However, topics such as transition plans to a 1.5C-world, scenario analysis, and climate-requirements in the value chain have repeatedly gained in significance and it, thus, becomes increasingly difficult for participants to reach or sustain their top-level scores.
About CDP
The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that runs the global disclosure system for companies, investors, states, regions, and cities to manage their environmental impact in terms of climate change, water security, and forests. assesses thousands of companies and organizations worldwide every year. At the request of investors, purchasers, and city stakeholders, CDP issues questionnaires to collect and evaluate data and information from participants on emissions, withdrawals, risks and opportunities, and reduction targets and strategies. As a recognized authority on sustainability assessments, CDP increasingly incorporated into financial assessments, (Deutsche Börse, Reuters, Google Finance, etc.).
DFGE support
Since 2014, DFGE – Institute for Energy, Ecology and Economy has been supporting companies as Accredited Solution Provider of CDP. As CDP’s longest partner in the German-speaking region, DFGE has helped DAX, MDAX, and SME companies to improve their ratings for the Climate Change, Water Security, and Forests questionnaires or helped to set science-based targets (SBTs).
If you would like for DFGE to help with CSRD compliance or improve your sustainability performance and successfully participate in the 2023 CDP questionnaire assessment or other sustainability ratings and rankings, please contact or call us: +49 8192 99733 20
Sources:
https://www.cdp.net/en/guidance/guidance-for-companies
https://www.cdp.net/en/companies-discloser
