CDP has set its date. According to its Help Center guidance for disclosing companies, 2026 scores go to companies through the CDP Portal in the week of 30 November 2026, and public scores are published on CDP’s website later that same week. The scoring deadline passed on 16 September, so the responses are fixed. What is left is how you read the result, and what you change for next year.
One change this year matters more in Thailand than almost anywhere else. For the first time, CDP is scoring rubber, together with cocoa and coffee, inside its Forests score. Thailand is the world’s largest producer of natural rubber, and the tyre, glove and latex supply chains that run through it now sit inside a scored CDP theme.
What arrives the week of 30 November
The timeline is short and fixed. CDP’s guidance sets out the steps after the deadline, and notes that disclosers are told about milestones by email and through the Portal:
For companies that complete the full questionnaire in 2026, CDP scores three themes: Climate Change, Forests and Water Security. Plastics, Biodiversity and the newly added Ocean questions are still unscored this year. The SME questionnaire is scored for climate only.
Rubber joins the Forests score
CDP’s Full Corporate Scoring Introduction 2026 asks Forests disclosers outside financial services to report on seven commodities: timber products, palm oil, cattle products, soy, rubber, cocoa and coffee. It expects companies to disclose on every commodity they source or produce. In 2026 all seven are scored, with rubber, cocoa and coffee scored for the first time.
Each commodity is scored separately in three categories: commodity visibility and reporting, deforestation- and conversion-free (DCF) status, and targets. The results are averaged into one Forests score. Companies also receive a sub-score for each commodity, but CDP is clear that the single Forests score is the one it uses for A List eligibility.
For a Thai company, rubber is no longer an unscored commodity. If you produce or buy it and you answered Forests, your traceability and DCF answers on rubber now count. Rubber is also one of the seven commodities named in the EU Deforestation Regulation, so a scorer and a regulator are now asking for the same supply-chain data.
CDP reads the response, not your report
This is the point Thai teams most often miss. CDP does not score your One Report or your sustainability report. It scores only what is written in the CDP response.
References to external sources of information, for example websites or sustainability reports, will not be considered as part of the scoring process.
CDP, Full Corporate Scoring Introduction 2026The same document says neither CDP nor its scoring partners verify the information in a company’s response. The one external source it does use is the SBTi database for validated targets. Weblinks and attachments do not stand in for an answer: a well-documented rubber traceability programme on page 140 of your annual report earns nothing if the CDP answer only points to it.
FTSE Russell works the other way, and the difference changes where the work goes:
| CDP | FTSE Russell ESG Scores | |
|---|---|---|
| What is assessed | The company’s own questionnaire response | Public disclosure, no questionnaire |
| Your One Report | Not considered, even if linked | A primary source |
| Language | Five scored languages; Thai is not one | FAQ names six key research languages; Thai is not one |
| Verification of data | CDP does not verify individual responses | Analysts research public sources; companies can review |
| Next milestone | Scores in the week of 30 Nov 2026 | December index review |
Five scored languages, and Thai is not one
CDP has the clearest language rule of any rater we track. Its 2026 Scoring Introduction says responses are scored if they are submitted in English, Japanese, Chinese, Spanish or Portuguese, and responses in other languages are not eligible. The Help Center lists language of submission as a common reason for receiving no score. Its wording still says “in 2025”, which looks like text carried over from last year, but the 2026 methodology states the same list.
So for a Thai company, the English CDP response is not a translation of something else. It is the only version that is scored. Other raters point the same way in softer terms. FTSE Russell’s FAQ §1.8 says it recognises the importance of local languages, but Thai is not among the key languages it names. SET’s Q&A 16 recommends English disclosure because FTSE assesses primarily from English. S&P Global’s language policy says it may machine-translate non-English documents and does not take responsibility for the accuracy of that translation.
There is also a consistency problem. A CDP response gives emissions, targets and commodity volumes in English. Your English One Report gives the same figures in another document. If the two disagree because a figure was restated, or translated loosely, anyone comparing them sees two different companies. This is why we treat translation as a disclosure risk, not a formatting step.
Who will see your score
Whether your score becomes public depends on who asked for it. CDP’s score privacy rules treat the response and the score separately:
If CDP’s capital markets signatories requested you, your score is public, whatever privacy setting you chose for the response.
If only a supply chain member, a bank or another requester asked, your score stays private. It is still shared with those requesters.
A first-time discloser could ask for a private first-year score. For 2026 that request had to be made by 16 October 2026.
A public response may be made available to CDP data users, which CDP says include investor research firms and rating organisations.
For Thai exporters in rubber, food and auto parts, the customer route is often the one that matters. A private score still goes to the overseas buyer that requested it, and that buyer reads it in English.
Where the evidence runs out
We found no verified count of how many Thai companies disclose to CDP, how many answered on rubber, or how many responses went unscored for language. We cannot say how rubber disclosers will score in this first year, and CDP has not published 2026 results by commodity or country. CDP also does not verify responses, so a high score reflects what was disclosed, not an audit of it. The case for acting is control over an English answer that is scored as written and read by your customers. It is not a penalty we can point to.
What to do when the score lands
Responses are locked for 2026, so the work now is diagnosis and next year’s response:
- When the score lands, read the category breakdown and, for Forests, the rubber sub-score. Note every place where points were lost to missing data rather than weak practice.
- Check every figure in the CDP response against your English One Report and sustainability report. Restated or loosely translated numbers should match, or carry an explanation.
- For rubber, put the traceability and DCF evidence in the response itself. A link to your report does not count.
- Base the emissions figures on a TGO-certified CFO inventory, so the CDP response, the One Report and any rating draw on the same verified numbers.
- Write or review the English response under ISO 17100 Translate-Edit-Proofread, with a locked term list shared with your annual reporting.
Does your CDP response match your English One Report?
We check the CDP answer, the English One Report and the Thai filing against each other, figure by figure and term by term, and close the gaps before next year’s cycle.
Run the free Gap AuditFor how the raters compare, see ESG ratings compared. For how TGO data reaches rated disclosure, see TGO carbon to FTSE disclosure. Dates across the Thai reporting calendar are in our ESG regulatory tracker.
Sources, read 9 November 2026: CDP Help Center, “Understand your score as a disclosing company” (KA-01160) and “Understanding response and score privacy” (KA-01156); CDP Full Corporate Scoring Introduction 2026, v1.2; Regulation (EU) 2023/1115, Art. 2(1); FTSE Russell ESG Scores and Indices FAQ v1.5, §1.8; SET Q&A sessions; S&P Global CSA Language Policy. This article is general information, not advice on your CDP response.
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