Export to Word Export to PDF

CDP Climate Change 2021 Questionnaire

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

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, governments have committed to a transition to a low-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.

CDP believes that improving corporate awareness through measurement and disclosure is essential to the effective management of carbon and climate change risk. We request information on climate risks and low-carbon opportunities from the world’s largest companies on behalf of investors, customers, and policy makers.

Regulators have begun to respond to the 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 2-degree pathway and then setting out how climate-related issues impact their strategy and financial planning. This amplifies the long-standing 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.

Commit to Action

The CDP Commit to Action program is the accelerator of corporate ambition and action in CDP. It adopts a systemic approach to transition high-impact companies to a net-zero climate impact through initiatives like the Science Based Targets initiative and RE100. These and other leadership initiatives are included in the "Take Action" platform through which leading companies commit to bold climate action.

Companies that have joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), either through the standard commitment pathway or by joining the Business Ambition for 1.5°C campaign can report on that in the “Targets and performance” module of the CDP climate change questionnaire. Companies can report their commitment to adopt a science-based emissions reduction target and track their progress against already validated targets by answering C4.1 and C4.2 sub-questions in detail. For more specific information on each commitment and how companies can report on their progress in the relevant sections of CDP’s questionnaires, please refer to the ‘Commit to Action Technical Note’.

Climate change questionnaire structure

There are 14 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:

  • Governance
  • Risks and opportunities
  • Business strategy
  • Targets and performance
  • Emissions methodology
  • Emissions data
  • Energy
  • Additional metrics
  • Verification
  • Carbon pricing
  • Engagement

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.

Each question number in the climate change questionnaire begins with the letter C. 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.

2021 climate change sectors:

  • Agriculture: Agriculture commodities (AC); Food, beverage & tobacco (FB); Paper & forestry (PF)
  • Energy: Coal (CO); Electric utilities (EU); Oil & gas (OG)
  • Financial: Financial services (FS)
  • Materials: Cement (CE); Capital goods (CG); Chemicals (CH); Construction (CN); Metals & mining (MM); Real estate (RE); Steel (ST)
  • Transport: Transport services (TS); Transport OEMs (TO)

Climate change questionnaire changes in 2021

The questionnaire is stabilized for 2021 so there are only minimal changes reflecting feedback or error correction.

Revisions and changes are indicated for every question as: “no change”, “minor change”, “modified question”, “new question”, “modified guidance”, or “additional guidance”. “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.

Key changes include:

  • Two new questions C3.1a and C3.1b on low-carbon transition plans.
  • A new question C4.2c on net-zero targets.
  • Removed questions SC3.1 - SC3.2a on the CDP Action Exchange.
  • Modified questions: C4.1a and C4.1b on emissions targets; C8.2e on low-carbon energy sourcing.
  • 10 questions with modified guidance and 2 questions with additional guidance.

A detailed document on climate change question changes from 2020 to 2021 can be found on the Guidance page of the website.