CDP offers deadline extension amid technical issues with new reporting platform
CDP has extended its reporting window by two weeks after users reported technical issues with its recently launched sustainability disclosure portal.
Companies that wish to be scored by CDP now have until October 2, 2024 to submit their disclosures, with the corporate reporting window closing on October 16.
CDP replaced its climate change questionnaire with a new, ISSB-aligned reporting platform in June 2024, unifying climate, forests, water, biodiversity and plastics questions in one online portal.
The new platform was expected to be used by about 75,000 companies in the 2024 reporting cycle, but the organisation says the transition caused “unforeseen challenges”.
“We are here to support the ecosystem and apologise for the inconvenience caused by the technical issues. Our priority is to fix these problems and ensure they do not affect disclosure or scoring. We are working with the Portal developer to implement an improvement plan and will be continuing to implement fixes throughout August to address data-entry challenges. We recognise the problems experienced in recent weeks mean companies would benefit from more time to disclose,” CDP said in a statement on August 21.
75,000 companies expected to disclose impacts through CDP this year
CDP estimates that financial institutions with US$142 trillion in assets have demanded that companies in their portfolios report on their 2023 impacts. The majority of these companies are well-prepared to make these disclosures, with nearly 60% of listed firms “already reporting the vast majority of data points aligned with IFRS S2 in CDP’s questionnaire”, the organisation notes.
In an effort to simplify the disclosure work for companies leading with a wide variety of sustainability reporting laws and standards, has been working with the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), the Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and EFRAG to align questionnaires and data points.
The new reporting platform is part of this effort to improve the reporting process and “make it easier to share quality data back to the market,” CDP added – noting that the technical issues are linked with the new technology used.
CSO Futures’ interview with CDP CEO Sherry Madera
In an April 2024 interview with CSO Futures, CDP CEO Sherry Madera admitted that many organisations – and their Chief Sustainability Officers – are experimenting “disclosure fatigue”, and warned that true harmonisation between different disclosure schemes would require “a jurisdictional willingness to create a common framework”.
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