CDP Climate Change 2023 Questionnaire

CDP Climate Change Questionnaire Preview and Reporting Guidance 2023 - Version Control

Note that you have selected to view the Climate Change - Minimum version.

You have selected to view sector-specific content for the following sectors:

CDP disclosure cycle 2023

Accessing questionnaire previews, reporting guidance, and scoring methodologies

CDP’s corporate questionnaire previews, reporting guidance, and scoring methodologies for climate change, forests and water security can be accessed from the guidance for companies page of CDP's website.

Submitting a response to the questionnaire(s)

Responses to questionnaires must be submitted via CDP's Online Response System (ORS), which is part of CDP's online disclosure platform. Please refer to Using CDP's Online Disclosure Platform for more details. Please note that while the questions themselves are the same in the questionnaire preview as they are in the ORS, the display format of some questions may differ, particularly for drop-down options and tables.

Sector-specific questions

Companies in high-impact sectors, in addition to the general questions, will be presented with questions specific to that sector. The rationale for developing a refined questionnaire for each of these sectors is outlined in the relevant sector introduction.

The sector-specific questions allocated to companies are defined by CDP's Activity Classification System (CDP-ACS). This system categorizes companies by focusing on the activities from which they derive revenue and associating these with the impacts to their business from climate change, water security and deforestation.

Please note that since each questionnaire includes sector-specific questions throughout, as not all questions will be applicable to your organization, some question numbers may skip.

Full and Minimum versions of the questionnaire

All organizations completing the climate change, forests and water security questionnaires are eligible to complete the full questionnaire.

In some cases, organizations may be eligible to complete a minimum version which contains fewer questions, and no sector-specific questions or data points.

Organizations are eligible to complete the minimum version of a questionnaire if they have an annual revenue of less than EUR/US$250 million*, and are disclosing in response to a request from a customer (i.e. CDP supply chain members), the CDP banks program members, the RE100 initiative, or the NZAM initiative.

Organizations will not be eligible to complete the minimum version questionnaire if they are disclosing in response to an investor request.

For information on scoring eligibility and implications, please see our Scoring Introduction.

* CDP reserves the right to remove the option of completing a minimum version questionnaire for previous responders to a questionnaire with an annual revenue of less than EUR/US$250 million, on the basis of the organization’s potential or existing environmental impact.

Timeline:

For the latest information on the timeline, please refer to our website.

For any disclosure-related enquiries, please contact the CDP Help Centre or your regional CDP contact.

CDP climate change questionnaire

This questionnaire is the property of CDP Worldwide, reproduction of all or part (including within software platforms) without permission of CDP Worldwide is prohibited. Please contact [email protected] for more information on this.

Introduction to CDP's climate change program and questionnaire

Improving corporate awareness through measurement and disclosure is essential to the effective management of climate change risk. CDP’s climate change questionnaire collects climate-related data from the world’s largest companies on behalf of over 680 institutional investor signatories with a combined US$130 trillion in assets and 280+ major purchasers with over US$6.4 trillion in procurement spend. Since its launch in 2002, the questionnaire has helped thousands of companies to measure their impacts, set ambitious targets and demonstrate progress for key stakeholders.

The questionnaire has been evolving over time in line with the latest climate science and global policy development. The 2015 Paris Agreement was a tipping point in the global approach to climate change. By agreeing to limit global temperature rises to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to limit warming to under 1.5°C, governments have committed to a transition to a net-zero carbon economy. This transition will create winners and losers within and across business sectors, as the manifestation of climate-related opportunities and risks accelerates in both size and scope. Business as usual will not be a good indicator of how companies will perform.

Regulators have begun to respond to the climate risks, notably with the recommendations by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Established by the Financial Stability Board, the TCFD has moved the climate disclosure agenda forward by emphasizing the link between climate-related risk and financial stability. The Task Force has recommended that both companies and investors disclose climate change information. This includes whether they are conducting scenario analysis in line with a 1.5°C pathway and then setting out how climate-related issues impact their strategy and financial planning. This amplifies the longstanding call from CDP’s investor signatories for companies to disclose comprehensive, comparable environmental data in their mainstream reports, driving climate-related risk management further into the boardroom. CDP’s climate change questionnaire has been aligned with the TCFD recommendations since 2018 and prompts companies to disclose data on how climate-related issues are addressed in their governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

In its first two decades, CDP’s climate change questionnaire focused on raising ambition around climate and providing data to improve governance and decision-making. But time is fast running out to prevent catastrophic climate change, and an irreversible loss of nature and habitats. There is now an urgent need to ensure that stated intentions are accompanied by concrete plans, with transition metrics, and evidence of progress against agreed goals. Accountability is needed to raise the bar to align with halving emissions, shifting towards nature positivity by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions and full nature recovery by 2050. In line with CDP’s 2021-2025 strategy, the climate change questionnaire and scoring will be evolving to further encourage and support companies to set targets and create tangible climate transition plans, as well as to measure their performance against them.

Carbon emissions are only one part of the challenge. The climate and nature crises need to be addressed simultaneously, including by conserving, protecting, and restoring ecosystems, adopting more sustainable agriculture and forestry practices, and ensuring a circular economy. In line with the 2021-2025 strategy, CDP begins broadening the environmental issues covered in its questionnaires, starting with the inclusion of questions on companies’ approach to maintaining and addressing biodiversity. As a first step in 2022, broad questions around governance, commitments, monitoring and reporting on biodiversity issues were included in a new module in the climate change questionnaire. These questions are material to all sectors and geographies and responses will inform future biodiversity metrics, ensuring the relevance and usefulness of biodiversity corporate reporting to both financial institutions and policy makers. The new biodiversity questions were developed in alignment with the IUCN’s Corporate Reporting on Biodiversity Guidelines.

Climate change questionnaire structure

There are 15 modules in the general climate change questionnaire, including the Introduction and Signoff modules, plus a module presented only to organizations that are responding to a customer request from one or more CDP Supply Chain Members. The journey through CDP’s general climate change questionnaire includes the following:

Sector approach

The structure of the CDP climate change questionnaire was redesigned in 2018 in response to market needs and trends in corporate climate change reporting. Revisions included the inclusion of the TCFD recommendations, an increased emphasis on forward-looking metrics, improved alignment with other reporting frameworks, and the integration of sector-specific questions.

For climate change, CDP has incorporated sector-specific questions for 16 high-impact sectors.

All question numbers in the general climate change questionnaire begin with the letter C. Introduced in 2022, question numbers in the new forests and water module for financial services organizations only, begin with the letters FW. Questions that are unique to companies in a particular sector are labelled using a two-letter abbreviation within the question number. These abbreviations are noted below.

2023 climate change sectors:

Climate change questionnaire changes in 2023

In 2023, CDP has revised questions and introduced new questions on topics which reflect the strategic priorities for CDP and its stakeholders. However, 79% of the 2022 questions remain unchanged. A detailed document on climate change question changes from 2022 to 2023 can be found on the Guidance page of the website.

Key changes include:

Core and supply chain questions

RE100 companies

Financial services sector

Other sector-specific changes

Revisions and changes are indicated for every question as: “no change”, “minor change”, “modified question”, “new question”, “modified guidance”, “additional guidance” or "revised question dependency". “Minor change” indicates wording edits and revisions to drop-down options or a simple clarification, while a “modified question” indicates that the data requested has been revised.

C0 Introduction

Introduction

(C0.1) Give a general description and introduction to your organization.

Change from last year

Response options

This is an open text question with a limit of 5,000 characters.

Please note that when copying from another document into the ORS, formatting is not retained.

(C0.2) State the start and end date of the year for which you are reporting data and indicate whether you will be providing emissions data for past reporting years.

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

RE100

Response options

Please complete the following table. *Column/row appearance is dependent on selections in this or other questions.

(C0.3) Select the countries/areas in which you operate.

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

RE100

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Select all that apply:

[Country/area drop-down list]

(C0.4) Select the currency used for all financial information disclosed throughout your response.

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

[Currency drop-down list]

(C0.8) Does your organization have an ISIN code or another unique identifier (e.g., Ticker, CUSIP, etc.)?

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

(*column/row appearance is dependent on selections in this or other questions)

C1 Governance

Board oversight

(C1.1) Is there board-level oversight of climate-related issues within your organization?

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Response options

Select one of the following options:

(C1.1c) Why is there no board-level oversight of climate-related issues and what are your plans to change this in the future?

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “No” in response to C1.1.

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Text field [maximum 1,000 characters]

Text field [maximum 2,400 characters]

Management responsibility

(C1.2) Provide the highest management-level position(s) or committee(s) with responsibility for climate-related issues.

Change from last year

Connections to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

TCFD

Governance recommended disclosure b) Describe management’s role in assessing and managing climate related risks and opportunities.

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Response options

Please complete the following table. You are able to add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

Select all that apply from drop-down options below

Climate-related responsibilities of this position (column 2)

Employee incentives

(C1.3) Do you provide incentives for the management of climate-related issues, including the attainment of targets?

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Climate-Related Management Incentives

Response options

Please complete the following table:

C2 Risks and opportunities

Management processes

(C2.1) Does your organization have a process for identifying, assessing, and responding to climate-related risks and opportunities?

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

TCFD

Risk Management recommended disclosure a) Describe the organization’s processes for identifying and assessing climate-related risks.

Risk Management recommended disclosure b) Describe the organization’s processes for managing climate-related risks

Risk Management recommended disclosure c) Describe how processes for identifying, assessing, and managing climate-related risks are integrated into the organization’s overall risk management.

Response options

Select one of the following options:

(C2.2g) Why does your organization not have a process in place for identifying, assessing, and responding to climate-related risks and opportunities, and do you plan to introduce such a process in the future?

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “No” in response to C2.1.

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Text field [maximum 1,500 characters]

Risk disclosure

(C2.3) Have you identified any inherent climate-related risks with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business?

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

TCFD

Strategy recommended disclosure a) Describe the climate related risks and opportunities the organization has identified over the short, medium, and long term.

SDG

Goal 13: Climate action

Response options

Select one of the following options:

(C2.3a) Provide details of risks identified with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “Yes” in response to C2.3.

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

TCFD

Strategy recommended disclosure a) Describe the climate related risks and opportunities the organization has identified over the short, medium, and long term.

Strategy recommended disclosure b) Describe the impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on the organization's businesses, strategy and financial planning.

Please note: columns 1-6 align with the TCFD recommendations.

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Climate Risk Assessment - Physical Risks

Climate Risk Assessment - Transition Risks

Financial Risks of Climate Change

Physical Climate Risk Adaptation

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You are able to add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

See drop-down options below

See drop-down options below

Text field [maximum 2,500 characters]

Numerical field [enter a number from 0 to 999,999,999,999,999 using up to 2 decimal places]

14 15 16 17
Explanation of financial impact figure Cost of response to risk Description of response and explanation of cost calculation Comment
Text field [maximum 2,500 characters] Numerical field [enter a number from 0-999,999,999,999,999 using a maximum of 2 decimal places] Text field [maximum 2,500 characters] Text field [maximum 2.500 characters]

Primary climate-related risk driver drop-down options (column 3b)

Select one of the following options:

Primary potential financial impact drop-down options (column 4)

Select one of the following options:

(C2.3b) Why do you not consider your organization to be exposed to climate-related risks with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business?

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “No” in response to C2.3.

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Text field [maximum 2,500 characters]

Opportunity disclosure

(C2.4) Have you identified any climate-related opportunities with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business?

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 13: Climate action

TCFD

Strategy recommended disclosure a) Describe the climate related risks and opportunities the organization has identified over the short, medium, and long term.

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Response options

Select one of the following options:

(C2.4a) Provide details of opportunities identified with the potential to have a substantive financial or strategic impact on your business.

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “Yes” in response to C2.4.

Change from last year

Connection to other frameworks

SDG

Goal 7: Affordable and clean energy

Goal 12: Responsible consumption and production

Goal 13: Climate action

TCFD

Strategy recommended disclosure a) Describe the climate related risks and opportunities the organization has identified over the short, medium, and long term.

Strategy recommended disclosure b) Describe the impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on the organization’s businesses, strategy, and financial planning.

Please note: columns 1-7 align with the TCFD recommendations.

S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment

Financial Opportunities Arising from Climate Change

Response options

Please complete the following table. The table is displayed over several rows for readability. You are able to add rows by using the “Add Row” button at the bottom of the table.

14 15 16 17
Explanation of financial impact figure Cost to realize opportunity Strategy to realize opportunity and explanation of cost calculation Comment
Text field [maximum 2,500 characters] Numerical field [enter a number from 0 to 999,999,999,999,999 using up to 2 decimal places] Text field [maximum 2,500 characters]
Text field [maximum 2,500 characters]

Primary climate-related opportunity driver drop-down options (column 4)

Select one of the following options:

Primary potential financial impact drop-down options (column 5)

Select from the following options:

(C2.4b) Why do you not consider your organization to have climate-related opportunities?

Question dependencies

This question only appears if you select “No” or “Yes, we have identified opportunities but are unable to realize them” in response to C2.4.

Change from last year

Response options

Please complete the following table:

Text field [maximum 2,500 characters]