Japan, U.S. lead survey's corporate climate change action 'A List'

FRANKFURT, Jan 20 (Reuters) - BT <BT,K>, Danone,
Microsoft and Sony are among 178 companies
with top marks in the latest global ranking of transparency and
action on climate change.

Japan and the U.S. were the countries with the headquarters
of the most 'A List' companies individually, while regionally,
Europe as a bloc was home to the highest number.

Companies are coming under pressure from customers and
investors to step up efforts to help slow climate change in
accordance with the 2015 Paris climate agreement to phase out
greenhouse gas emissions by shifting away from fossil fuels.

Non-profit CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure
Project, ranked 2% of more than 8,000 companies that submitted
environmental data in the A List of its index.

The A List is released to coincide with this week's World
Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, which brings together
leading figures from business, government and civil society.

Among examples of positive steps, CDP said Japanese
electronics giant Sony was making gaming consoles more
energy-efficient and Danish toy-maker LEGO aims to use
sustainable materials for packaging by 2025 and all products by
2030.

CDP said the STOXX Global Climate Change Leaders index,
based on the CDP A List, outperformed the STOXX global 1800 of
major firms by 5.5% a year over a 7-year period.

"Leading on climate action is good business in today's
economy," Steven Tebbe, managing director of CDP Europe, said in
a statement accompanying the report.

Leading global names on the list included AstraZeneca
, L'Oreal, Sainsburys, Nestle
, LEGO, Walmart and Bayer.

Microsoft this week set a new ambition by pledging to remove
as much carbon as it has emitted in 45 years and investment
manager BlackRock said it would tie its engagements to
sustainability.
(Reporting by Vera Eckert, editing by Alexander Smith)