African and Asian companies more receptive to climate disclosure requests

Companies in Africa and Asia are significantly more likely to produce climate disclosures if they are targeted through a shareholder or financial institution campaign, according to a report from CDP.

The report summarised the results of a programme between CDP and financial institutions to promote climate disclosure from companies across the globe.

260 financial institutions participated in 2022, 23% of which were from the UK. They engaged with 1,466 companies from 30 countries. The report compared them to a control group of 2,976 companies that have failed to respond to disclosure requests.

It found that companies were 2.3 times more likely to disclose after being targeted by a financial institution.

This rose to 2.6 times more likely for companies in Asia.

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141 companies from across Asia disclosed for the first time after engagement. Within China, companies were four times more likely to disclose, with Alibaba and China Merchants Bank disclosing for the first time.

"In a region with historically low rates of disclosure and high emissions, it is an encouraging development," the CDP report stated.

The campaign also engaged with African companies in 2022. They found they were three times more likely to disclose, with three companies out of 20 responding, "much higher" than the control group.

"For markets such as these, engagement is a key tool in kickstarting ambition and pushing for disclosure to become the business norm," the report stated. "We encourage participants to build on their engagements in these regions in the 2023 NDC."

Other findings from the report included that companies targeted to respond on forest-related disclosures were 3.2 times more likely to disclose and a record number of companies were engaged to disclose on water security.

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"This is a hugely powerful outcome and one that would not have been possible without the engagement and action of the 260 capital markets signatories," wrote Claire Elsdon, global director at CDP Capital Markets.

The report found that resubmission were also high as 90% of companies that responded for the first time in 2021 disclosed again in 2022.

The CDP said the 10% of companies that failed to disclose will re-enter the group for engagement for 2023.