CDSB In the News

Corporate Responsibility Magazine - The Future Quotient - Jan 5th 2012, John Elkington identifies 50 stars in the areas of sustainability and innovation. CDSB is described as a 'constellation' and features alongside China's 5 year plan and Google. Read the article

BusinessGreen - Mandatory emissions reporting decision could be delayed further - Jan 4th 2012, Will Nichols looks at the delay in the decision regarding mandatory emissions reporting, and how the decision may not be made by the April 6th 2012 deadline set by the Climate Change Act. Features a quote from CDSB's executive director, Lois Guthrie. Read the article.

Social Funds - Sustainability News - Largest South African companies are responding to climate change but need to more: Dec 6th 2011, Robert Kropp analyses a report by EIRIS commissioned by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) to look into the corporate responses to climate change of the 40 largest companies listed on the JSE. Read the article.

Unburnable Carbon - Are the world's financial markets a carbon bubble? 2011,  a report by the Carbon Tracker Initiative, calls into question the treatment of oil reserves as assets if the enforcement of GHG targets means that the reserves cannot be combusted or sold.  Climate scientists have calculated that if 886 Gt CO₂ is released globally during the period 2000 – 2050, there is a 20% chance that global warming will exceed 2°C. In 2011, the world has already burnt over one third of this 886 Gt CO₂ budget, and the known fossil fuel reserves easily exceed the remaining allowance. The report refers to the reserves beyond this limit as unburnable carbon. Its authors have approached CDSB to explore working together to progress this work. Of particular interest to them is CDSB's input into how accounting rules and the regulatory architecture support the continuing characterisation of reserves as assets, notwithstanding that reduction targets might impair them. Download the report

Accounting Futures Edition 03, 2011 published by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants, introduces a series of articles on The Age of Integration: A New Dawn for Corporate Reporting? The articles focus on  the International Integrated Reporting Committee. and summarise its goals, including climate change disclosure as advocated by CDSB. The outcome of corporate reporting 'would be a more holisitic picture of the reporting entiity that covers risks and opportunities, and reflects the interconnections between ESG and financial factors'. Dowload the articles  

World Investment Report 2011: Non-equity modes of International production and development  published by UNCTAD, highlights the increasing focus on corporate social responsibility standards within the investment policy landscape, by means of voluntary and regulatory initiatives.The report singles out the investment opportunities in renewable energy which combine competitive financial returns with environmental and social gains. Download report

OECD’s transition to a low carbon economy report, 2010. The report summarises policy frameworks, regulations and other drivers of corporate action in support of a low-carbon economy and documents business practices in addressing climate change, building on principles of responsible business conduct as identified in the Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. It is structured around three broad areas of corporate action: accounting for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions; achieving reduction of GHG emissions; reaching out to suppliers, consumers and other stakeholders. Dowload the report

Disclosing Climate Risks and Opportunities in SEC Filings: a Guide for Corporate Executives, Attorneys and Directors, 2011 was published by CERES. This report  helps companies review and improve their disclosure. It provides clear guidance for companies on how to assess and disclose climate risks and opportunities, as well as give concrete examples of what investors view as quality disclosure. It refers to the Climate Change Reporting Framework as guidance covering all aspects of the framework developed by the Global Framework for Climate Risk Disclosure. Download the report

The Landscape of Integrated Reporting: Reflections and Next Steps, 2010, edited by Robert G. Eccles, Beiting Cheng and Daniela Salzman, is a free EBook with eleven Parts, published by Harvard Business School. This followed the School’s Workshop on Integrated Reporting: Frameworks and Action Plan. In Part 10 on Lessons from Experience, Lois Guthrie of CDSB contributed the article Carbon Disclosure Standards Board – setting a standard for realism and resilience which discusses the background to the Climate Change Reporting Framework published the same year. Download the Ebook

Carbon reporting to date: seeing the wood from the trees, 2010 was published by Deloitte LLP. It  examines how a sample of 100 UK listed companies publicly report their greeenhouse gas emissions or 'carbon footrpint', compared to Defra's guidance. Disclosures showed a high degree of variation in carbon footprint reporting practices. The report singles out CDSB's Climate Change Reporting Framework as a tool for integrating climate change-related information into mainstream corporate reporting. Download the report

All together now: a common business approach for greenhouse gas emissions reporting, 2009 was published by the CBI. It presents a set of proposals developed through a substantial programme of business engagement across the UK for a common approach to greenhouse gas reporting. The report presents CDSB's key aim and recommends the use of the financial control methods to define company boundaries, aligning emissions reporting with financial reporting. Download the report

Rising to the Challenge: a Review of Narrative Reporting in UK Listed Companies, 2009 was published by the Financial Reporting Council and the Accounting Standards Board. The report aims to help companies improve their narrative reportting, and identifies risk reporting as the area most in need of improvement. The list of proposals for carbon reporting requirements and guidance includes CDSB's Reporting Framework Exposure Draft.  Download the report

The Materiality of Climate Change and the Role of Voluntary Disclosure, CLPE Research Paper 47, 2009 explores the role of voluntary disclosure in response to the demands of investor groups in North America for clarification about the application of existing disclosure requirements to climate change-related risks. Even if issuers are meeting their current obligations on disclosure of climate change risks, the “materiality” threshold for disclosure would still be likely to leave a gap between legal requirements for issuers and the demands of investors for information about how issuers are responding to climate change challenges. CDSB is singled out as an initiative where organisations collaborate on voluntary disclosure.  Download the report