Today a group of large institutional investors with significant assets wrote to the 500 largest quoted companies in the world by market capitalisation asking for the disclosure of investment-relevant information concerning their greenhouse gas emissions.
Commenting on the information request, Paul Dickinson the project coordinator, said:
“There are potential business risks and opportunities related to actions stemming from the perception of climate change that have implications for the value of shareholdings in corporations worldwide. Examples of such actions are political and regulatory momentum moving against significant carbon emitters; emissions-sensitive technologies, products and services superseding those existing today; and shifts in consumer sentiment due to a corporations stance on climate change.

” This suggests it is time for shareholders better to understand climate change risks and opportunities. The data to assess these issues are not always available and sometimes lack comparability or are of poor quality. This exercise is part of general investment analysis and the signatories have supported a joint information request to reduce costs for the corporations.”

The recipient corporations have been asked to respond within six months, and the information received will be compiled into a thematic and comparable report (risk and opportunity by sector/geography) by Innovest Strategic Value Advisers, who have been retained to perform the analysis. The report will be distributed to participating shareholding institutions and responding corporations, and made publicly available at www.cdproject.net from February 2003. All raw data authorised for publication will also be made available at this time.

This initiative has been coordinated by the Carbon Disclosure Project, a special project within the Philanthropic Collaborative of Rockefeller & Co. Inc. in New York.

The group of investors are not a legal entity, and the Carbon Disclosure Project has no authority to make any other statement on behalf of the participants.

Paul Dickinson, Project Coordinator
57A Farringdon Road, London EC1M 3JB
Email: info@cdproject.net

Carbon Disclosure Project:
Tessa Tennant (Chair), Paul Dickinson (Co-ordinator), Jeremy Smith, Paul Simpson

Advisory Board:
James Cameron, Eileen Claussen, Andrew Dlugolecki, Colin Maltby, Jim Martin, Bob Monks, Robert Napier, Eckart Wintzen.

On behalf of the following institutional shareholders:
Abbey National
Alecta
Allianz / Dresdner
AP2
AP3
Baillie Gifford & Co
Calvert
Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church
Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES)
Clerical Medical Investment Management
Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds
Cooperative Insurance Society (CIS)
Credit Suisse Group
Domini Social Investments LLC
Gartmore
Henderson Global Investors
ING Sustainability Funds
Jupiter
Local Authority Pension Funds Forum
Legal & General
Merrill Lynch Investment Management
Morley Fund Management
Munich Re
Newton Investment Management
Societe Generale Asset Management UK
Storebrand
Swiss Re Asset Management
Threadneedle Investments
UBS Global Asset Management (UK)
University Superannuation Scheme
Walden Asset Management