It was Tesla's exclusion from a major S&P environmental index. The electric-vehicle pioneer is being called out by CDP to come clean about its climate-changing impact.
The release says stock market giants such as Tesla TSLA, Exxon Mobil XOM, and Saudi Aramco 2222 are among the companies targeted this year. Here is a list of the companies that you can find here.
CDP said this year's push for greater greenhouse gas emissions, deforestation and water use disclosures among the world's corporate leaders has attracted record levels of participation by investors. In 2021, 57% of financial institutions are taking part. CDP said the number of participants had doubled the year before from 2020.
In total, the companies named add up to $24 trillion in global market capitalization and are estimated to emit more than 4,800 mega metric tons CO 2 e annually.
263 global investors it counts as members, representing more than $31 trillion in assets, asked for disclosure from more than 1,400 high impact companies via the 2022 disclosure campaign.
It is the second time this year that a slight comes from a climate-friendly source.
Tesla's early-to-market feat wasn't enough to protect its stock from being knocked out of one of the most widely followed environmental, social and governance ESG indexes, the S&P 500 ESG Index.
Tesla's electric vehicle standing doesn't offset discrimination claims, autopilot crashes and other factors, S&P said at the time, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk replied that S&P Global Ratings has lost their integrity. Elon Musk called the ESG a scam - did Tesla chief Elon Musk give investors a favor?
The carmaker has a large following for its EVs, which are essentially zero-emission to operate, but they have historically been mum on its energy use, transportation emissions and other factors, as well as environmental high marks and a large following. If proposed Securities and Exchange Commission emission-reporting rules are adopted, that may change soon.
Read: Tesla's Model Y and the rest of the most American-made cars and SUVs
Engagement is critical to driving disclosure, and disclosure is the first step to environmental action, said Laurent Babikian, CDP's joint global director of capital markets.
He said that climate change, deforestation and water security presented material risks to investments and that companies failing to disclose their impact could lead to competitor's access to capital.
Non-disclosure will no longer be an option for many of these companies, according to Babikian, who said there are stringent environmental disclosure requirements on the horizon in regions like the U.S., Japan, EU, New Zealand and India.
CDP has tagged some companies for only providing partial data. General Electric Co. GE and Italy's GeoxIT: GEO are some of the companies targeted in the campaign because they only disclose water-related data. Toyota MotorJP: 7203 was called out because it disclosed only forest-related information.
This year, CDP said that 72% of companies in the campaign were asked to disclose their impact on climate change but added that there had been an increase this time around in the number of firms that were asked to report their water and forests-related impact compared to last year.