By Stephen Leahy

JOHANNESBURG, Apr 30 (IPS) – Thousands of companies supplying some of the world’s largest corporations know climate regulations are coming and are agreeing to measure their emissions of climate-altering greenhouse gases.

“Companies, including those in least developed countries, are worried about the risks of extreme weather, water shortages and so on that climate change poses,” said Paul Dickinson, CEO of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), an independent not-for-profit organisation in Britain that is coordinating the effort.

Multinationals like Tesco and Unilever may not generate huge amounts of carbon emissions from their own stores or head offices, but their suppliers — which number in the thousands and are located all over the world — certainly do. It would be foolish to pretend these were not part of a corporation’s carbon footprint, Dickinson told IPS.

“Unlike politicians, corporations have long lives. And everyday consumers ‘vote’ with their dollars,” he said.

The CDP is the world’s largest investor collaboration on climate change, with 385 institutional investors holding assets worth 57 trillion dollars. Increasingly, leading companies and their investors know that climate change poses significant business risks and liabilities and are attempting to reduce their risks by curbing emissions.

Under the CDP’s Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration, 11 major corporations were asked to obtain information from their suppliers last January about greenhouse gas emissions, emissions reduction targets and climate change strategy.

The results have now been compiled, and were released Wednesday by CDP. They show that 96 percent of suppliers identified greenhouse gas regulation as a potential risk. Suppliers also foresee extreme weather conditions adversely affecting operations and slowing productivity. Some 58 percent identified reducing energy consumption as the best means of managing climate change-related risks.

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