Out of 257 companies stating the periods of their emissions reduction targets in the Carbon Disclosure Project, only 36 percent of these disclosed targets that stretched beyond 2012. It is often said that a business can only manage what it measures. Since 2000, the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has, on behalf of institutional investors, challenged the world's largest companies to measure and report their carbon emissions; integrating the long-term value and cost of climate change into their assessment of the financial health and future prospects of their business.

The CDP is widely recognized as holding the most comprehensive collection of global data on corporate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies. Thousands of organizations measure and disclose their data through CDP. The CDP then uses this information to positively influence financial and policy decision-making.

In 2009, the CDP received the highest response rate to date, the highest level of disclosed emissions and greater detail than ever before on the activities being undertaken by the largest corporations around climate change, mitigation and adaptation.

It was noted in last year's report that 2009 would be a defining year in the climate change calendar and that much rests on the outcome of the Copenhagen Climate Conference to be held in December. The outcome of this conference is likely to shape the global policy response for the next decade and, potentially, the speed and severity of climate change impacts for many decades to come.

Geographical bias
Though the Global 500 conti­nues to be largely biased towards certain geographies-most notably the US, the international nature of the responses reflects the full range of regulatory, physical and commercial drivers. The world's largest companies hold signi­ficant influence over global emissions and their potential to be reduced, and can play a major role in helping to shape an international agreement.

Three key facts from the responses are notable in relation to this role:

• An agreement would provide increased certainty for the Global 500; out of 257 companies stating the periods of their emissions reduction targets, only 36 percent of these disclosed targets stretched beyond 2012. Consumer Staples and Utilities were the only sectors where more than half of companies disclosed targets beyond 2012.
• Regulatory drivers can be an opportunity instead of a burden; 46 companies saw the introduction of the UK's Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) as a risk, but 16 of these also saw it as an opportunity. Interestingly, a further 14 companies viewed it as only an opportunity
• Asian companies are quickly becoming engaged. Asia has increased its proportion of the Global 500 respondents from CDP 2008, to 17 percent (71), partly due to an 18 percent increase in response rate- the largest of all the geographic regions.
  

Mapping key metrics by country
The CDP report showed that the companies of just five countries account for 70 percent of total emissions disclosed. Of these five countries, only the UK ranked in the top five companies for disclosure score. This suggests a gap in the rest of the top five, (US, Germany, France and Japan), where relative to other countries.

The IT scenario
The report declared that HP is consolidating its 85 legacy data centers into six data centers in three cities, each equipped with the latest energy-efficient equipment and Dynamic Smart Cooling technology.

DQC News Bureau

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