2024 brings about a lot of changes for corporate climate disclosure, and CDP is no exception.
The environmental disclosure system has announced a few significant changes that companies should be aware of for the CDP reporting season. We haven’t seen such significant changes to CDP reporting since 2018, when the sector-specific questions and TCFD alignment were first introduced. To break it down, First Climate Consulting put together a list of what companies can expect from CDP disclosures in 2024 to best prepare for CDP disclosure season.
1. CDP’s New Disclosure Timeline
In previous years, the CDP disclosure submission deadline was end of July. For 2024 however, CDP has moved the disclosure timeline to September 18, 2024.
While the official deadline is pushed back, we still recommend getting familiar with the changes as soon as possible to ensure that your company has enough time to prepare for the revised reporting and ensure the best results.
CDP also announced that they are introducing a new online platform for CDP disclosures. It is expected that this platform will help to streamline collaboration between multiple colleagues or consultants for more efficiency. This will first be available in April 2024.
2. SMEs CDP Questionnaire
As voluntary climate disclosure becomes standard practice among more and more companies and with mandatory disclosures soon looping in SMEs, CDP has created a questionnaire geared specifically toward small and medium enterprises.
If your company is a part of this SME group that has maybe not yet disclosed with CDP, this could be a sign that 2024 is the year to start.
3. New CDP Questionnaires for 2024
Previously, there were separate questionnaires for the disclosure CDP categories Climate Change, Forests, and Water Security, but now one integrated questionnaire will cover all three. What’s not changing: CDP scores for each of these topics will remain separate.
In practice, this should make reporting less time-consuming and less repetitive for companies to disclose for all three topics. It could also result in more companies choosing to receive scores for all three, increasing the amount of data and measurement of progress across all topics.
4. CDP Disclosure aligned with the IFRS S2 Climate Standard
One of the important features of disclosing with CDP is its alignment with other standards, including the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TFCD), so that companies can be sure to work towards best practices. In 2022, CDP announced that they would integrate the ISSB (International Sustainability Standards Board) International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) 2 standard on “climate-related disclosures” into CDP disclosures for 2024.
While following the IFRS standards is currently entirely voluntary, discussions are underway in many countries on how to adopt or integrate the ISSB standards into mandatory disclosure frameworks. Companies that want to get ahead of mandatory reporting should consider CDP disclosure in 2024.
For companies already affected, or soon to be affected, by the EU’s mandatory disclosure CSRD (Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive), this CDP and ISSB alignment is also helpful due to a significant amount of overlap between the standards. However, it’s important to note that the CSRD’s European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) require a double materiality assessment whereas the ISSB S2 standard on climate-related disclosures does not.
First Climate can help companies develop strategies to prepare for both CDP disclosure and the CSRD as necessary. Not sure if you’re impacted by the CSRD? We can advise you.
Start Disclosing today.
In general, there has been an upwards trend in companies disclosing their environmental impact across all regions. Since 2020, there has been a 140% increase from companies disclosing. This is a positive trend that increases transparency and helps to measure progress in the private sector. However, it also means that there could be more competition and more value placed on CDP scores. For companies that have not ever disclosed, it is important to not fall behind, as investors and stakeholders increasingly look at climate-related disclosures.
The best way to avoid falling between the cracks is to work with experienced professionals who can not only help through the reporting process, but also provide insights and tips on how to optimize reporting results and analyze and suggest ways to start making improvements for coming years. As an accredited CDP Silver Renewable Energy and Science-Based Targets solutions partner for the DACH region, First Climate can help your company optimize its CDP score.
Contact us at impact@firstclimate.com !
About the Author
Jonathan Schwieger is a corporate climate strategy consultant and Head of First Climate’s GHG Accounting and Climate Reporting practice. In this capacity, he supports private sector clients in realizing their climate ambitions and leads the team’s activities related to carbon footprint assessments as well voluntary and compliance climate-related reporting. Prior to joining First Climate in 2015, Jonathan worked for the Clean Energy Trust (CET) in Chicago, a regional cleantech impact investor and business accelerator.
