In 2007, Asian companies and global investors furthered a dialogue over quality information, from which a rational regional response to climate change emerged. The analysis of the Asia ex-Japan Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP5) responses by ASrIA from 44 companies 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.

In CDP5, the most important trends in Asia reflect a growing breadth and depth in responses. Although Asia continues to have the lowest regional response rate within the CDP5 universe at 26%, our sample in 2007 attracted responses from a range of leading Asian companies.

For investors, the key conclusions to emerge from ASrIA's analysis of the CDP Report 2007 responses are:

• Rising Materiality
  A range of Asian companies are providing more material responses which describe strategic business initiatives to curtail carbon emissions or develop new process and product strategies;
• 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;
• Governance Matters
  Corporate governance and the degree of top management engagement are critical determinants in the management and disclosure of carbon emissions and the development of formal initiatives;
• 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; 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.

CDP5 also provides some valuable insights into future Asian climate change reporting and strategy development. In particular, thanks to the increase in the Asian sample in 2007, we have more tools to assess peer group competition on carbon fundamentals.