As part of the questionnaire, CDP provides a small primer on its process and its use of data, some of which addresses what the legal and financial implications are for responding corporations. It states that the legal implications are the same as those associated with standard disclosure and that companies responding do so without any assertion of ownership of the data provided– CDP has license to use data without any restriction whatsoever. Participating companies can opt out of public disclosure of their results and only be used in aggregate statistics.

Efforts with U.S. Cities

International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives – Local Governments for Sustainability is partnering with the CDP to address emissions in U.S. cities. ICLEI USA is part of the worldwide ICLEI organization based in Toronto, Canada. The organization was founded in 1990.

All cities are participating on a voluntary basis. Participating cities will have the opportunity to use data from peers on climate change management. CDP plans for the end results to yield information to companies, investors and the general public about how each city addresses climate change risks and opportunities. ICLEI will contribute its software tools and guidelines for a useful protocol to cities. Cities will use the Local Government Operations Protocol, which was coauthored by ICLEI, the California Climate Action Registry, and the California Air Resources Board in their emissions measuring efforts. This provides the policy framework, calculation methods, and reporting guidance for quantifying Greenhouse Gas Emissions from local government operations.

Mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg announced that “the city of New York joins the world’s leading corporations in providing a complete, accurate accounting of its carbon emissions, the strategies it is employing to mitigate those emissions, and the results of its efforts through the Carbon Disclosure Project and ICLEI. This partnership between the world’s major corporations and, increasingly, its cities, highlights the importance of the cooperative action needed to successfully counter climate change.”

In April of 2007, New York City released the first comprehensive inventory of greenhouse gas emissions in its history. The inventory was completed as part of the ICLEI Cities for Climate Protection campaign. The emphasis on cities to get more green is already occurring. New York taxis are being upgraded to use less gasoline and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The CDP Cities program requests that participating cities respond by October 31, 2008. All responses are to be published in a CDP Cities Report and ICLEI Local Action Network Report in January of 2009.

CDP recently announced a joint effort with IBM in the UK to undertake an extensive joint research project into carbon management practices. The project will establish guidelines in collecting data and developing a carbon strategy and provide support for executives in the implementation of climate change strategies.

Notably, the two firms who are the stimulus for U.S. cities emissions measurement and reporting, are not U.S.-based. CDP is a UK-based firm, and ICLEI is based in Toronto, Canada. This could be indicative of how other countries have become more progressive than the U.S. in carbon emissions measurement and reduction programs than that of the U.S. A 2004 report by the Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center indicated that the top five countries by carbon dioxide emissions are: The U.S. (22.2%); China and Taiwan (18.4%); Russia (5.6%); India (4.9%), and Japan (4.6%). However, more recent estimates have placed China above the U.S.