CDP

The CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project, is a global non-profit organisation that runs an environmental disclosure platform used by companies, cities, and governments worldwide. Through the CDP, organisations report data on their climate change impacts, water security, and forests. Companies respond to CDP questionnaires on an annual cycle, typically at the request of investors or customers who use the data to assess environmental performance and risk. Responses are scored and publicly available, meaning CDP performance is visible to investors, customers, and other stakeholders who request or review it.

CDP reporting is voluntary in the strict regulatory sense—there is no law that requires it. In practice, however, it is often commercially mandatory. Large institutional investors, including many of the world's largest asset managers, use CDP data as part of their environmental due diligence and may require portfolio companies to disclose. Major corporate procurement programmes, particularly in sectors such as retail, food and beverage, and manufacturing, require or strongly incentivise their suppliers to respond.

CDP disclosure also aligns closely with other frameworks companies are likely to be working within. CDP questionnaires reference the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework and are used as a reporting route by companies with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) commitments. For companies subject to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), CDP can serve as a useful parallel disclosure mechanism, drawing on much of the same underlying data.

The quality of a CDP response depends on the quality of the underlying emissions data. Inaccurate or incomplete carbon accounting affects Scope 1, 2, and 3 disclosures, emissions reduction targets, and the evidence base behind governance and risk disclosures. Companies with robust, auditable emissions data are better placed to respond accurately, consistently, and efficiently across CDP and the other frameworks that draw on the same inputs.