From chaos to clarity: insights from the CDP 2024 reporting season

The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) is a not-for-profit organization that administers a widely accepted global disclosure system for investors, companies, and municipal governments to help manage their environmental impacts. Due to their membership and reach, CDP has been considered the “gold standard” of environmental reporting, with a comprehensive dataset on corporate and municipal action.

As an Accredited Solutions Provider (ASP) of CDP for over 10 years, Ramboll supports clients in navigating and maximizing their CDP disclosures. While 2024 was a challenging year, we also saw improvements to the CDP system, and leveraged our innovative expertise to offer clients comprehensive guidance amidst the complexity.

Here is a look at both the wins and the challenges of 2024, and what Ramboll has planned for 2025.

• All-in-one questionnaire. In 2024, CDP streamlined the reporting process by integrating the topics of climate change, water, and forests into a single questionnaire. Questions around governance, strategy, risks, and opportunities have been consolidated, reducing reporting burden and redundancy, and providing a comprehensive view of environmental data.
• Alignment with key standards. CDP’s alignment with major frameworks like TNFD, IFRS, and CSRD means that companies can tackle CDP reporting knowing it would bring alignment and efficiencies with their broader sustainability strategies and goals. This is a big step toward more cohesive, impactful disclosure.
• Clearer criteria for transparency. Expanded “essential criteria” for awareness, management, and leadership scoring levels gave a clear pathway for improving future scores by providing specific and tangible strategies and actions companies can implement within their business.

While the CDP process also involved some turbulence in 2024, Ramboll has been able to use our unique combination of technical expertise, global knowledge, and specialties in regional regulations to help clients navigate complexity.

Challenges faced by those participating in the CDP included:

• Increased detail requirements. While the integrated questionnaire was a step forward, expanded data requirements and the new format/entry process to add responses into the portal added complexity to data gathering and response development, stretching client resources and timelines.
• Shifting deadlines and dates. CDP’s frequent updates and changing release dates turned planning into a tricky process, and companies had to remain agile to meet evolving requirements.
• Portal glitches and long waits on CDP’s help portal. Technical issues within the new reporting portal caused many challenges for clients. In addition, with all the changes, companies needed help fast—but CDP’s help portal faced delays, leaving many companies waiting longer than expected for feedback and guidance from CDP.

Ramboll was able to help clients overcome these challenges in a multitude of ways, most notably:

• Real-time updates and fast-track support with ASP connections. As an ASP, Ramboll was able to provide clients with direct, rapid support. We kept clients in the loop with immediate updates related to timelines, guidance, and scoring methodology changes, helping them stay on top of and adapt to last-minute changes, and align their responses with new requirements.
• In-depth scoring and tailored recommendations. Our detailed scoring assessments and mock scoring identified overlooked opportunities, helping clients navigate and decipher the new guidance, methodology, and online reporting system while maximizing their scores.
• Expertise in climate disclosures and action. Our in-depth understanding of client needs, the CDP process, and other climate disclosure requirements enabled Ramboll to support clients in answering expanded and more detailed questions while accurately reflecting their sustainability initiatives. In addition, our expertise across various critical components of CDP (e.g., transition plans, science-based targets, climate risk assessments, supply chain management, and ESG governance) allowed us to not only better support how and what to disclose, but to help guide strategic action and planning.

Each CDP reporting season brings new challenges, and 2024 was no exception. As disclosure expectations and the actions behind them continue to grow, Ramboll continues to stay at the forefront of science, innovation, and policy in order to bring insight and unparalleled service to clients participating in CDP.

With the 2024 CDP results set to release on February 6, 2025, we’re here to help navigate what comes next in this evolving landscape. Ramboll has renewed our partnership with CDP in 2025 as an ASP to continue to support their important mission to build a sustainable economy.

“As a long-time Accredited Solutions Provider for CDP and a global leader in sustainability, Ramboll understands the importance of – and challenges facing – both accurate ESG disclosures and the concrete actions and performance that support them. We are excited to continue working alongside CDP and client companies to develop high-quality and transparent ESG disclosures that accurately reflect, inform, guide, and connect to their sustainability journeys,” says George Lu, Principal, ESG and Sustainability, at Ramboll.