The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), to which PwC has been appointed global advisor and report writer, and now in its seventh year, aims to provide investors with a unique analysis of how the worlds largest companies are responding to climate change.

In 2009, CDP received the highest response rate to date, the highest level of disclosed emissions and greater detail than ever before on the activities being undertaken by the largest corporations around climate change mitigation and adaptation. Since the first CDP report in 2003, the quantity and quality of data disclosed has advanced significantly. In parallel, CDP data is increasingly being applied as a catalyst for changing business behaviour and is becoming more integrated into mainstream financial analysis.

This year, CDP (backed by 475 institutional investors representing more than US$55 trillion of funds under management) sent questionnaires to more than 3,700 of the world’s largest corporations requesting information on greenhouse gas emissions, the potential risks and opportunities related to climate change and strategies for managing those risks and opportunities.

PwC prepared the reports for the Global 500, S&P 500 and FTSE 350 as well as industry specific reports for 10 sectors.