OTTAWA - Canada's biggest companies are making climate change a higher priority, partly through more widespread disclosure of greenhouse-gas emissions, according to a new report.
The report from the non-profit group Carbon Disclosure Project, to be released Wednesday by the Conference Board of Canada, surveyed the 200 most valuable Canadian companies on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Companies were asked to disclose how they are dealing with the risks and opportunities associated with carbon emissions and energy use.
The report, titled Canada 200, found the level and quality of disclosures improved this year over last year's results.
Fifty-five per cent of the companies provided a response, up from 45 per cent last year. And companies disclosed more information about their energy costs, as well as the costs and savings from reducing emissions, the report says.
The increased willingness by companies to disclose their carbon emissions reflects the changing political, social and regulatory landscape, said Len Coad of the Conference Board of Canada.
"The increasing response rate and the improvement in terms of the quality of the responses we're receiving suggests to us that companies are both more focused on greenhouse-gas emissions than they were a few years ago, and also better able to respond to the request that is coming from investors to disclose carbon emissions," he said.
The report found 49 per cent of companies surveyed have plans to manage emissions. Some companies are going ahead with their own plans to lower emissions, the report says, while others are waiting for the Conservative government to publish regulatory requirements.
The Tories have pledged to lower greenhouse gases 20 per cent from 2006 levels by 2020 through regulations, a cap-and-trade system, investments in green technology funds and credits for companies that took early action to cut their emissions.
Draft regulations were to be published this fall, but last month's federal election likely pushed back that deadline.
However, final regulations are set to come into force on Jan. 1, 2010, and there's some concern industry will have to scramble to comply with them.
Companies are already factoring the future cost of carbon into capital expenditure planning, which affects investment decisions, the report says.
The report says that of the companies that will be most affected by the federal regulatory requirements, such as those in the oil-and-gas sector, 58 per cent are forecasting their future emissions or energy use.
Moreover, corporate boards of directors are increasingly assuming the role of stewards of their companies' carbon emissions, the report says. That responsibility has typically fallen to a company's middle management or top executives.
"That provides again a greater assurance that long-term strategies are being put in place, and the matter of reducing carbon emissions is receiving priority attention within the companies," Coad said.
The Carbon Disclosure Project is supported by 385 institutional investors, including Caisse de depot et placement du Quebec, Sun Life Financial Inc., CIBC and BMO Financial Group. Those investors have a total of more than $57 trillion under management.
