Leading Asian listed companies such as ICBC, Cathay Pacific, Posco, TSMC, Siam Cement, and Infosys are disclosing new and more sophisticated business responses to climate change and carbon emissions challenges. ASrIA's just released Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2007 for Asia ex-Japan has found that a select group of Asian corporations are now positioned as the first wave of Asian companies with expertise in managing carbon emissions.

In the report released today, ASrIA researchers note that “the goal of the Carbon Disclosure Project is ‘to facilitate a dialogue, supported by quality information, from which a rational response to climate change will emerge.' In 2007, this dialogue between Asian companies and global investors took a significant step forward. CDP5 includes responses from 44 Asia ex-Japan companies and, for the first time, offers compelling insights into Asian companies' emerging policy responses to climate change. This is meaningful because most of these companies do not have the benefit of government policy guidance or carbon trading markets which would create transparent price incentives for action. Instead, they are responding to a range of pressures—from customers, competitors, investors, and global regulators—which promise to shape their long-term competitiveness.”

The key conclusions to emerge from ASrIA's analysis of the 2007 CDP responses are:

• Rising Materiality   A range of Asian companies are launching strategic business initiatives to curtail carbon emissions and shape new product strategies. For example, Hong Kong's Cathay Pacific is working on carbon offset programs for internal and customer use;
• New Industry Resources   Companies working on climate change strategies often rely on industry associations and global NGOs to provide guidance on carbon disclosure and policy options. China's China National Offshore Oil Corp. (CNOOC) is using software developed by Chevron and made available by the American Petroleum Institute to develop systems to monitor emissions;
• Governance Matters   Corporate governance and the degree of top management engagement are critical determinants in the disclosure of carbon emissions and the development of formal initiatives. Hong Kong's CLP Holdings continues to record progress against board endorsed targets on renewables;
• Watch Korea and India   Korean companies are the Asian leaders in more comprehensive carbon reporting while Indian companies were the largest group of new respondents. In Hong Kong, Swire Pacific provided its first response to CDP, marking an important step forward for a closely watched conglomerate; and
• Tech and Telecoms Lead, Banks and Utilities Lag The quality and quantity of responses from Asia's tech and telecoms companies is notable, while Asia's banks and utilities lag their global counterparts in responding to CDP. In this context, Hang Seng Bank's detailed response and ICBC's first response are positive signs of greater engagement by leading Hong Kong-listed banks. 

ASrIA's CDP work is based on an information request which was sent to a sample of 166 companies covering ten Asian countries. The CDP is a global disclosure initiative which has invited institutional investors over five consecutive years (2003 - 2007) to sign a single global request for disclosure of information regarding greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. In doing so, it has created one of the largest ever collaborations of global institutional investment capital—at $41 trillion of assets under management in 2007. The information requests have historically been sent to the largest global companies by market capitalization. Beginning in 2006, ASrIA has worked to expand the universe of Asian companies receiving the CDP request.

The Carbon Disclosure Project Report 2007 Asia ex-Japan will be launched by ASrIA on 25th September 2007. The report will be available free of charge from ASrIA's web site www.asria.org/publications#CDP. For comprehensive information on climate change and related sustainable finance issues, please see ASrIA's Climate Change Portal http://www.asria.org/portal.

The Report was sponsored by the Sigrid Rausing Trust.