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CDSB Investor Engagement Program

CDSB’s investor engagement programme aims to work with users of climate change-related disclosures to understand the issues investors encounter during their information search, information processing, and information application processes. The focus of CDSB Investor Engagement Programme is on issues associated with investors’ needs and their use of company-supplied data on carbon emissions and other aspects of climate risk management.

The investor engagement programme aims to produce the following outcomes:

  1. identification of integrity and other quality issues bearing on investors’ demand for environmental-related information;
  2. identification of the specific types of information items, report formats, and reporting venues sought by investors;
  3. determination of the influence of information items, formats, and venues on investors’ portfolio allocation decisions;
  4. requisite tailoring of the CDSB Reporting Framework so as to make it relevant and useful for users;
  5. integration with CDSB’s corporate engagement programme so as to achieve a transparent and effective communication process between investors and companies;
  6. establishment of user benefits associated with company-supplied climate change-related disclosures;
  7. evidence of user demand for climate disclosures sufficient to justify adoption of the CDSB Reporting Framework by securities regulators and stock exchanges;
  8. publication of the results in prestigious, academic, scientific journals.

Are financial institutions taking GHG emissions into account?

CDSB was commissioned by the UK Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) to investigate the way in which financial institutions use climate change-related information.

CDSB’S report presents the results of an investigation into how financial institutions take account of environmental considerations in making investment decisions. Although the investigation did not find evidence of environmental data being used for portfolio allocation decisionFinancial Institution Pics, the level of investor interest in environmental data is strong. The lobbying activities by companies and others for stronger policy measures suggest that a broad scale market movement towards environmental investing is needed.

 The recommendations from the report are key points for action in CDSB’s investor engagement strategy for 2011/12. The report formed part of DEFRA's research into the contribution that greenhouse gas reporting makes to the UK achieving its climate change objectives. The full report can be read here and the summary here.