CDSB Reporting Templates

Introduction

The CSDB is a consortium of seven business and environmental organizations that has been formed for the purpose of jointly advocating a generally-accepted framework for corporations to report climate change-related risks and opportunities, carbon footprints, and carbon reduction strategies and their implications for shareholder value.

CDSB believes that the public and stakeholders need companies to provide consistent and comparable information about the way in which they are affected by and their strategy for responding to climate change. By aligning their basic requests for information, CDSB members aim to go beyond best practice and to make it standard practice for companies to report climate change-related information in their Annual Reports and for this to extend into the related analysis by the investment research community.

This document is designed to provide a common reporting template for climate changerelated information to be used by companies in compiling their Annual Reports.

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions

What to report
  • Actual direct and indirect GHG emissions for the period covered by your Annual Report
  • Estimated future direct and indirect GHG emissions
  • GHG emissions reduction targets and an analysis of performance against those targets

    • GHGs

    The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has concluded that "warming of the climate system" is unequivocal and that "most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid 20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic GHG concentrations". Information about GHG emissions and reduction plans helps stakeholders to assess the risks to which companies may be exposed from future regulation to restrict or minimise GHG emissions.

    Sources of further information

    For more information on how to measure GHG emissions and set reduction targets, please refer to:

  • The Greenhouse Gas Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition) developed by the World Resources Institute WRI) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), available at www.ghgprotocol.org, and/or
  • The International Standards Organization's ISO 14064-1 – "Specification with guidance at the organizational level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals" available at www.iso.org

    • GHG Emissions checklist

  • Decide on and describe the methodology for identifying and calculating GHG emissions (eg: the GHG Protocol, ISO, in house method etc) and apply the methodology consistently, disclosing all assumptions and accounting methods used.
  • Identify and describe the boundary of the organisation for which GHG emissions will be reported (eg: companies under your financial control, companies included in your consolidated financial accounts etc).
  • Estimate future direct and indirect GHG emissions for years up to and including 2012 where possible, together with an explanation of the methodology/rationale for your estimates.
  • Detail your GHG emissions reduction plans including the organisational boundary to which it applies, the baseline year you use to assess targets against, the strategies you use to reduce emissions, how your company's performance against targets is measured, what key performance indicators are used and whether achievement of those targets has been or is expected to be affected by particular events.

    • Physical Risks from Climate Change

    What to report

    A qualitative overview of your company's current and potential material exposure to direct and indirect physical risks due to climate change.

    Physical risks

    Physical effects of climate change are already being observed by scientists and others and further effects are predicted. These effects include changing weather patterns, sea level rise, shifts in species distribution, higher incidence of disease, changes in water availability, changes in temperature, variation in agricultural yield and growing seasons and so on. Exposure to physical risks may arise from extreme events such as intense storms and hurricane activity and/or from more subtle changes such as shifts in species distribution and increased night-time temperatures.

    Sources of further information

    For more information on physical risks from climate change, please refer to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC (www.ipcc.ch).

    Physical risks assessment checklist

  • Identify and describe the physical risks to which your company is exposed
  • Explain how those risks are assessed
  • Categorise risks as current, short-term, medium-term or long-term and explain the timescales involved
  • Name regions or particular locations that are particularly vulnerable to the risks you have identified, for example, because of installations based in those areas, particular vulnerability to resource shortages brought about by climate change, etc.
  • Explain whether you have considered the effect of physical risks from climate change on your supply chain, your customers and the market generally and if so, how those risks that are external to the company might affect your business and operations.
  • Describe actions or plans your company is taking or may implement to mitigate against or adapt to the physical risks you have identified.
  • Provide estimates of the potential costs of mitigation or adaptation to the physical risks you have identified.
  • Describe how risk management and control measures are used in your business to manage the actual and potential physical effects of climate change.

    • Regulatory Risks from Climate Change

    What to report

    An analysis of the material legal and financial effects that current and prospective climate change-related regulation may have on the company's business and operations.

    Regulatory risks

    Regulatory risks from climate change arise from current and/or expected national and/or global government policy on climate change and may include emissions limits, energy efficiency standards, carbon taxation, process or product standards and regulation of GHG emissions.

    Sources of further information

    Governments around the world are individually and jointly implementing policies and drafting legislation on climate change and it is not therefore possible to provide general sources of information about regulatory risk. You may wish to consult the websites or distribution channels of the environment or trade ministries of the countries in which you operate for further information.

    Regulatory risks assessment checklist

  • Identify the existing climate change related regulations, policies or government sponsored initiatives that already affect your company and the countries in which they apply. Provide an overview of the impact on your business, how the relevant rules are implemented and the implementation costs.
  • Discuss known trends, events, commitments and uncertainties that are reasonably likely to have a material effect on the financial condition or operating performance of the company.
  • Analyse and quantify the effect on company and shareholder value of the possible regulatory scenarios. Include in your analysis the secondary effects of regulation such as increased energy and transportation costs. Consider possible shifts in consumer demand due to change in domestic and international energy markets.
  • Consider how possible GHG emissions reductions may affect the cost of carbon and how this could impact your business.

    • Strategic analysis

    What to report

  • A statement of the company's position on climate change, its responsibility to address climate change and its engagement with governments and advocacy organisations to influence climate change policy
  • An explanation of all significant actions the company is taking to minimise risks and maximise opportunities associated with climate change.
  • A description of corporate governance actions taken to address climate change, including by the company's Board.

    • Strategic analysis

    Reporting under this category provides stakeholders with information about companies' future challenges and opportunities associated with climate change and how those risks and opportunities are managed.

    Sources of further information

    The way in which companies undertake a strategic analysis of climate change depends on various factors including their general risk management approach, governance structure, stakeholder interests, type of industry and so on. It is not therefore possible to provide general sources of information on this reporting category.

    Strategic analysis assessment checklist

  • Include in the analysis implications of climate change for competitiveness and access to resources.
  • Describe risks (other than those covered under physical and regulatory risk reporting above) and opportunities that the company can influence directly as well as those that arise indirectly through customers, supply chain, the market etc.
  • State over what timeframes risks and opportunities are assessed and when they are expected to materialise.
  • Describe significant actions that the company is taking to minimise risk and to maximise opportunity, for example, participation in emissions trading schemes, investment in clean energy technologies, development and design of new products and services, etc.
  • Describe the company's risk management processes and systems.
  • Explain the company's corporate governance actions, including whether the Board has been engaged on climate change, how responsibility for climate change is delegated and how executives are held accountable for and/or rewarded for implementation of the company's climate change strategy.