Utilities Dominate Climate A-List

CDP, an international not-for-profit organization that provides benchmarks for investors, has published its annual ‘Climate A List’ comprising companies it deems to be leading in climate change mitigation today and in the future.

Eni, one of the upstream firms listed, says that of thousands of companies examined by CDP, only 9% of those participating in CDP’s climate change program are awarded a position on its Climate A List. This year's A list includes the 193 best companies globally that have publicly reported on their actions on climate change mitigation.

In general terms, CDP's report says that business is gearing up to go low-carbon and that 85% of companies already having emissions reduction targets in place. But it says that many of their targets lack long-term vision and so fail to keep global warming target below the critical 2˚C threshold.

Only five energy firms – 'energy' is defined as upstream and refining – earn a place on its A-list, although there are more utilities: Spanish refiner Cepsa, Eni, Portugal's Galp Energia, Finnish refiner Neste and Canadian independent Vermilion Energy. Thus Statoil and Total, both investors in new and renewable energies, are excluded.

Mark Smedley

For more on this and on renewable energy please see the forthcoming issue of Natural Gas World, published November 2.