A growing number of Irish companies are setting externally verified climate emissions targets as well as choosing to disclose their performance, a new report shows today.
Environmental charity CDP Ireland Network's Climate Change Report for 2022 shows that 384 companies that reported are either headquartered or operate here with 87 Irish companies on the list.
Two Irish companies - Accenture and Trane Technologies - scored high enough to achieve a place on the CDP A List alongside 290 other companies worldwide.
This was the first time Irish companies appeared on the top ranked list since 2020.
Eleven other Irish companies were ranked in the leadership category A- by CDP including AIB, Hibernia Real Estate Group, An Post, Kingspan, Kerry Group, CRH, Cairn Homes and Smurfit Kappa.
32 new Irish companies reported to the CDP Climate Change programme, including the NTMA, Ornua, CPL Resources, Glen Dimplex, Version 1, Energia and EirGrid.
Today's report shows Irish companies generally performed well compared to other regions with a total of 24% of Irish companies achieving an A- or higher in 2022. This compared to 21% globally.
CDP rewards reporting companies for taking measurable action and last year a total of 33 companies in Ireland had an approved science-based target, while an additional 33 committed to setting one.
CDP noted that the focus of its scoring will increasingly move from target setting to implementation over the next few years.
The report also shows that 70% of Irish responding companies now provide third party verification of their emissions, up from 66% last year.
It said that 49% of responding companies have a climate transition plan, with two thirds of these plans published externally.
The environmental charity said the increasing willingness of companies to participate in the report is a recognition that investors, customers and employees have high expectations of the level of disclosure and transparency they receive on environmental factors.
Eoin Fahy, Chairman of CDP Ireland Network, said he was pleased to report that the number of companies reporting to CDP rose once again.
"Reporting to CDP is of course the absolute minimum first step that companies should take to demonstrate to their stakeholders - their investors, their staff, and their customers - that they are taking their responsibilities seriously," Mr Fahy said.
"Importantly, an increasing number of companies are putting in place scientifically verified Net Zero targets. To be properly verified, these targets must have specific plans for how Net Zero is to be achieved - a vague aspiration to get to Net Zero in 30 or 40 years, is not in any way credible unless backed up by concrete proposals on how that will be achieved," he added.
Brian O'Kennedy, the Executive Director of the CDP Ireland Network, said he welcomed the very positive trend of increasing climate disclosure.
"However, the fact remains that we are still decarbonising at a slower rate than what is required for us to avoid an irreversible climate crisis. CDP will expect companies to present far more concrete climate transition plans in the short term. Ambition is important, but action is critical," he stated.
