CDP: Eight-Fold Increase in Global Companies Pricing Carbon Since 2013

Putting a price on carbon is becoming the new normal for major multinationals, with almost 1,400 companies factoring an internal carbon price into business plans, according to a new report from CDP.  This represents an eight-fold leap in take up in the last four years, compared to just 150 companies in 2014, and includes more than 100 Fortune Global 500 companies with collective annual revenues of US$7 trillion.

The research shows that more than three-quarters of the energy and utilities sectors’ market cap is currently pricing carbon internally, including US industry heavyweights such as National Grid, Exelon Corporation and PG&E Corporation.  Over half of the materials and telecommunications sectors also intend to use an internal carbon price as early as 2019. 

Regionally, China is ramping up Asia Pacific progress, with companies such as China Vanke, Shanghai Electric and China Mobile helping to nearly double the number of companies internalizing a carbon price since 2015 (from 54 to 102).  China’s plans to roll out the largest emissions trading system in the world by the end of 2017 is likely to send a ripple across regional and global markets, with the expectation that up to a quarter of global carbon emissions will soon be covered by a carbon price.

Despite current uncertainty around environmental regulation, US companies are bucking the trend with 96 companies disclosing they are now using an internal carbon price, up from 29 in 2014, with an additional 142 planning to implement one by 2019.  California also extended its emissions quota system (cap-and-trade) to 2030 with an overwhelming majority vote.

Read more at Pricing Carbon “New Normal” Globally for Companies, Says CDP