Africa - Europe Satellite
(Updating with comments, company support, funds interest)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFX) - The World Economic Forum (WEF), which is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has announced the formation of a new international partnership to create a framework for the standardized reporting of climate risk-related issues by corporations.
Members of the partnership, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), will align their core requests for information from companies to ensure that the companies report climate change-related information uniformly in annual reports, WEF said.
This will mean investors, managers and the public can compare and analyse information more easily, WEF said in a statement.
Key climate information to be disclosed in annual reports will be the assessment of physical and regulatory risks of climate change, and the strategic analysis of climate risk and emissions management.
CDSB will initially comprise the California Climate Action Registry, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Ceres, The Climate Group, International Emissions Trading Association, World Economic Forum Global Greenhouse Gas Register, and World Resources Institute.
The statement cited support from Royal Dutch Shell (nyse: RDSA - news - people ), Duke Energy Corp (nyse: DKE - news - people ), JP Morgan Chase, Swiss Re, and top accounting firms.
In news conference comments, CDP's James Cameron said his organisation speaks on behalf of investors with 34 trln usd of funds under management.
Ceres representative Mindy Lubber said firms in the US with a material risk from climate change effects have a legal obligation to file this data, with the SEC wanting to know if they will be sued.
'I think eventually governments will make this mandatory,' she said.
