More than 10,000 companies will be receiving requests from an investor group including more than 680 institutions representing over $130 trillion in assets, to disclose data regarding their environmental impact with climate research provider and environmental disclosure platform CDP.

CDP runs a global environmental disclosure system, enabling investors and other stakeholders to measure and track organization’s performance in key environmental sustainability areas including climate change, deforestation, and water security. The platform provides annual scores for companies on each of the key categories, and the data is also used by information services providers such as Bloomberg, STOXX, Trucost, FTSE/Russell, MSCI and ISS ESG to power investment research, products, indices and ratings.

The campaign marks a significant increase in the number of companies being asked to report, particularly targeting those have not yet disclosed with CDP. This year, 10,400 companies will receive the letters, up from approximately 7,200 last year. This will include over 3,300 being asked for the first time, marking a 46% increase over last year.

CDP stated that by 2025, it aims to grow its data repository to cover 90% of the world’s highest-impact firms. In addition, the platform will also expand its coverage of environmental issues examined, with this year’s questionnaire including questions on biodiversity impact, and plans to assess issues including land and oceans and waste and food in the future.

In 2021, over 13,000 companies reported environmental data through CDP, up over 37% from the prior year. While the number of disclosing organizations has been growing, however, CDP noted that last year, nearly 4,000 companies failed to respond to the disclosure requests. Recently, CDP also recently revealed significant gaps in the reporting of many companies, with only slightly over a third of companies assessed last year having credible emissions reduction targets, and less than 1% reporting on all of CDP’s key climate transition-focused indicators.

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, commented:

“Since we sent out our first disclosure request to companies two decades ago, CDP has played a critical role in transforming environmental reporting from a niche side issue to the top of boardroom agendas, with disclosure now being mandated in regulation worldwide. While many companies are disclosing, setting targets and taking action across their own business operations and value chains, there is a surprisingly large part of the market still to take the vital first step of disclosure. These companies are becoming increasingly out of touch with reality, investor and public opinion, not just because of the regulatory stick that is approaching, but also because there are so many proven benefits to transparency. We hope that this request, backed by such an influential group of financial institutions worldwide, will hit home and drive transparency and action even further.”

The list of financial institutions signing onto the campaign is growing rapidly as well, with nearly 100 new signatories to this year’s letters. Signatories to the requests include high profile investment managers such as Allianz, Amundi, BlackRock, BNP Paribas, State Street, Vanguard, AXA and CalPERS.

Jean-Jacques Barbéris, Head of Institutional and Corporate Clients Coverage & ESG Supervisor at Amundi, said:

“Investors have an important role to play in driving corporate transparency and action on environmental issues – we recognise this and have supported CDP’s disclosure request for the last 12 years. We need this comparable, consistent and clear data for our investment decision making, our research, our product development, our corporate engagement and our regulatory compliance. It is also vital for us to meet our own climate goals. But crucially, we don’t just need data on climate, we also need more information on other areas of natural capital, and we must ensure that this is incorporated in what companies disclose and take action on going forward.”

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