This year's Carbon Disclosure Forum aimed to provide both an introduction to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and climate change risks and opportunities and also provided some strategic and technical advice and suggestions for those companies which have already developed some experience with the process.

Rob Stewart, FVP, Asia Marketing and Communications, Merrill Lynch opened the event by welcoming the delagates and emphasising the increasingly recognised value of disclosure on climate change issues to investors. Claire McLetchie, the Executive Director of ASrIA, who facilitated the event, also encouraged companies to participate in the process.

Several key speakers participated in the forum. Wai-shin Chan, ASrIA's Development Director, provided an overview of the benefits to corporates of responding to the process and in particular emphasised the importance of focusing on gathering data and expertise on areas of sectoral relevance to their business.

Chris Hazen, Director of WSP Environment & Energy (Asia), provided a more technical overview exploring the extent to which carbon is potentially both an asset or liability for Asia based companies. He included a number of valuable case studies which highlighted the potential opportunties for investors who engage strategically with climate change related issues.

Finally, Jennifer Jiang, Director, ML (Asia Pacific) Commodities, explored a range of investor perspectives on carbon disclosure.

From the Q&A and feedback it is evident that companies which have already gathered significant experience with the CDP process still have a need for technical guidance in some aspects of the process. We have therefore provided links to some relevant technical resourses - see 'Further Carbon Disclosure Resources', below.