Get the latest delivered to your inbox
Privacy Policy

Now Reading

Global Greenhouse Gas Register Launched

Global Greenhouse Gas Register Launched

Published 01-22-04

Submitted by World Economic Forum

Davos, Switzerland – The World Economic Forum today officially launched the Global Greenhouse Gas Register, a new global initiative to stimulate the disclosure and management by companies of their worldwide climate emissions. Developed in partnership with leading international business and environmental organizations, the Register is intended to spur voluntary corporate climate action around the world by creating a global standard for the disclosure of their emissions inventories and reduction targets.

Ten companies confirmed their commitment to disclose the amount of greenhouse gases their worldwide operations produce. Alcoa, Anglo American, Cemex, Holcim, HP, Lafarge, RAO UESR, RWE, ScottishPower and Vattenfall committed to participating in the World Economic Forum’s Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Register. These companies together account for an estimated 800 million tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent per year (approximately 5% of global Annex-1 GHG emissions).

Starting today, participating companies can enter data into the Web-based Register. Once a company’s data is vetted and accepted by the Forum, it will be displayed on the Register’s website; the Forum anticipates that initial data will be posted as early as February.

“Many firms are being asked by their shareholders, governments and communities to take voluntary steps to manage their impact on the climate, but until now there has been no platform for the public disclosure of such information on a comparable, globally consolidated basis. The Global GHG Register is a collaborative effort by the business and environmental communities to create the kind of generally-accepted framework that can spur a broader response by businesses around the world and provide investors with a clearer understanding of the carbon-related risk in their portfolios,” said Richard Samans, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum’s Global Institute for Partnership and Governance.

Good Business Sense

Register participants have recognized that enough is known about climate change to warrant action on their part. Beyond considerations of environmental concern and good corporate citizenship, companies conducting inventories can also identify ways to enhance their productivity and energy efficiency; support the development of flexible, market-oriented policies such as emissions trading or technology research; and prepare themselves to deal with future regulatory requirements.

"Deloitte is committed to helping clients respond to global business risks and opportunities. Many of our clients have identified the measurement and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions as an important part of their future reporting practices. We have been working closely with the World Economic Forum to develop a practical tool that will assist companies in disclosing their GHG inventories in a manner that is useful to users of such information and does not create an unnecessary burden on business,” said William G. Parrett, CEO, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu.

“Anglo American recognizes fully the challenges to its businesses and to society at large arising from greenhouse gas emissions. We are committed to reducing unit emissions through a focus on energy efficiency, continuous improvement in technology and operations and by increasing awareness and understanding of the challenges wherever we operate. The Register represents an opportunity for us to contribute to greater corporate transparency and to benchmark our performance against others,” said Dr John Groom, Senior Vice-President of Safety, Health and the Environment at Anglo American.

“HP's commitment to the World Economic Forum's Global Greenhouse Gas Register is just one example of how we apply ourselves to the environmental, social and economic challenges of globalization,” explained Walt Rosenberg, HP's Vice-President of Corporate, Social and Environmental Responsibility. “This Register presents an opportunity to increase the transparency of our operations and demonstrate the progress of our climate change programmes.”

“For good business reasons, Lafarge has committed itself to reducing its CO2 emissions well beyond business as usual. By including our commitment in the World Economic Forum’s Register, we want to show that business is taking real action to cut CO2 emissions at a global level. We hope that more businesses will also join us on the Forum’s Register to illustrate the enormous contribution that business as a whole is making,” said Chris Boyd, Chief Executive Officer of Lafarge Italy.

“The investment community will increasingly be taking into account what kind of carbon-related risks companies are facing and how this may impact on company performance. This does not stop at brand reputation and market perception but includes risk ratings, the cost of capital as well as direct cash flows and earnings,” said Samans. “From a company perspective, you could say that what gets measured gets managed. For investors, the standardized and consolidated nature of the information will allow better comparative analysis of company actions.”

Register Welcomed by Partner Non-Governmental Organizations

“Around the world, companies that are aware of the responsibilities of corporate citizenship have not been deterred by the impasse in negotiations between governments, and have not waited for multilateral decisions before responding,” said Edemar Cid Ferreira, Chairman and Founder, BrasilConnects, Brazil. “The Global GHG Register provides companies, including those in Latin America, the opportunity to show their commitment to the achievement of real results in environmental projects.”

“We welcome the new Global GHG Register since it will make corporate accountability for emissions more transparent,” said Janet Ranganathan, Director of the GHG Protocol Initiative, a project of the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. “While companies will use the GHG Protocol as the standard to account for their emissions, the Global GHG Register will provide a central platform where these individual reports can be publicly accessed.”

“Conducting inventories and disclosing the results are critical to any successful emissions reductions programme; the World Economic Forum’s Register is a perfect first step for engaging in that process,” said Eileen Claussen, President of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, USA.

“This is a critical initiative on voluntary reporting that is the foundation of any future trading regime,” said Andrei Marcu, Executive Director, International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), Switzerland.

Web-based Application

The California Climate Action Registry (CA Registry), assisted by CH2M Hill, developed the technical infrastructure for the online reporting application and database of the Global GHG Register. The CA Registry’s existing Web-based reporting tool, CARROT (Climate Action Registry Reporting Online Tool) serves as the basis for the Global GHG Register.

“The CA Registry’s CARROT was the ideal foundation for our GHG Register – a clear, usable, dynamic platform,” commented Samans. “It’s a solid registry application already used successfully by major businesses to track and report their GHG emissions.”

About the GHG Register

The Greenhouse Gas Register has been developed in partnership with the following organizations: BrasilConnects, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, the International Emissions Trading Association, the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, the World Energy Council, the World Resources Institute and the World Wildlife Fund.

Photos of our events can be downloaded free of charge for journalists at
http://www.swiss-image.ch/worldeconomicforum (login required).

About us
http://www.weforum.org/aboutus

The World Economic Forum is the foremost global community of business, political, intellectual and other leaders of society committed to improving the state of the world.

Incorporated as a foundation, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. The Forum has NGO consultative status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations.

World Economic Forum logo

World Economic Forum

World Economic Forum

www.weforum.org

More from World Economic Forum

Join today and get the latest delivered to your inbox