Climate Disclosure Standards Board

he Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) was formed at the 2007 annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in response to increasing demands for standardised reporting guidelines on the inclusion of climate change information in mainstream reports.

CDSB works to develop a globally accepted framework, based on existing standards, for corporate reporting on climate change. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) acts as Secretariat to CDSB and is responsible for advancing the CDSB Climate Change Reporting Framework in association with members of the CDSB Board, Advisory Committee and Technical Working Group.

About CDSB

CDSB is a consortium of seven business and environmental organisations that works with leading professionals in accountancy, business, standard-setting and regulation to develop and advocate a generally-accepted global framework for use by corporations in disclosing climate change-related information in mainstream reports.

CDSB does not aim to create a new standard. Through its collaborative approach, CDSB aims to support, harmonise and strengthen existing climate change-related reporting initiatives and standards by bringing together and enhancing best practices in the form of a single consistent global framework that can be used for disclosure in mainstream reports.

CDSB’s work programme is managed by the Carbon Disclosure Project which acts as Secretariat to CDSB.

Objectives

In developing the global framework, CDSB’s objectives are to:

1. Elicit information of value to reporting organisations in devising and implementing their business strategies and to users of climate change-related disclosures made in mainstream reports.

2. Enhance the efficiency of capital allocation by investors, enabling them to integrate climate change-related costs, risks and opportunities into their analyses.

3. Provide corporations with greater certainty on disclosure requirements and encourage the consistency of approach that is necessary for effective benchmarking.

4. Provide conceptual and practical input into deliberations by regulatory agencies contemplating the introduction or development of requirements on corporate climate change-related disclosures.

The CDSB Reporting Framework

CDSB is a practical, tangible response to widespread demands for globally applicable common protocols and standards on climate change-related reporting. That practical, tangible response takes the form of the development of a reporting framework for climate change-related disclosure to be used by companies in compiling their mainstream reports.

Mainstream reports

"Mainstream reports" are the annual reporting packages in which certain corporations are required to deliver their audited financial results under the corporate, compliance or securities laws of the territory or territories in which they operate.

The framework

The framework has been developed by CDSB’s Technical Working Group and the Secretariat and the framework is described in the links from this page. The Reporting Framework was officially launched for comment on 25 May 2009 at the World Business Summit on Climate Change in Copenhagen, Denmark. Please click the link below for the full Framework:

http://www.cdsb-global.org/uploads/CDSB_Climate_Change_Reporting_Framework_2.pdf