insto - Australian financial markets

While many companies are reluctant to admit their potential greenhouse gas costs, the number of institutional investors seeking this information has spiked, repots Bernard Kellerman.

The Carbon Disclosure Project has evolved as the pre-eminent mechanism for communication between companies and investors on climate change and carbon exposure issues. It has been run globally for 7 years, but for the fourth year has been expanded to cover the top 200 Australian and top 50 New Zealand companies.

The Australian Securities Exchange has received regulatory clearance for futures and options contracts on Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs). These contracts will be listed on Tuesday, 24 November.

The introduction of ASX REC futures and options will support the Australian Government’s Renewable Energy Target (RET) scheme, which is designed to ensure that 20 per cent of Australia’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2020.

ASX100 companies ranked fifth globally for their disclosure on emissions and climate change strategy, according to the results of the Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 Australia and New Zealand. Seventy-three per cent of ASX100 and 96 per cent of ASX50 companies responded to this year’s CDP survey, compared to an overall global response rate of 55 per cent.