Well over half the ASX 100 companies have indicated they will participate in this year’s Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), after just 57 of them bothered to return last year’s inaugral survey.

Responses to the survey, which probes companies as to how they are managing their carbon emissions, are due on May 31. According to the head of quantitative research on the sell-side at Goldman Sachs JBWere (GSJBW), Andrew Gray, the number of companies indicating they would respond to the 2007 CDP already exceeded the total number of participants in 2006. GSJBW co-sponsors the CDP in Australia along with the Investor Group on Climate Change. The CDP deadline is one of two reasons that May 31 will be a pivotal day for those intrigued by how climate change is effecting funds management – it’s also when the National Emissions Trading Taskforce will deliver its recommendations on the shape of a future Australian carbon trading scheme.