This is the Pembina Institute's third annual review of corporate climate change action plans. It evaluates 86 of the most complete voluntary action plans submitted to Canada's Voluntary Challenge and Registry Program (VCR) in 1997. Corporate Action on Climate Change is the one document that provides interested Canadians and VCR participants with a third-party assessment of how specific action plans stand up against those of others in the program. Of particular interest to VCR participants, it also:
- provides a clear sense of what should be included in a credible and effective voluntary action plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, offering guidance for companies that want to improve their performance; and
- describes a standardized approach for assessing the credibility and effectiveness of action plans submitted to the VCR.
The Institute's climate change specialists examined the basic information contained in each plan, the specific actions being taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and overall corporate climate protection performance, before assigning a score out of 100. The review also describes the screening, evaluation, and ranking criteria used in the assessment. The highest score of 80.5% went to Consumers Gas, but only 35 of the 86 companies scored more than 50%. Only three performers (Consumers Gas, TransAlta and the Alberta Government) received scores higher than 70% this year. The document features a detailed two-page review of each of the 86 submissions assessed.
