The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) has this week inked a major new alliance with investment giant Merrill Lynch designed to support the campaign for greater corporate reporting on climate change impacts as it pushes into new regions such as China and Korea.

Merrill Lynch is already a supporter of the CDP, which each year sends out information requests to many of the world's largest companies on behalf of investors calling on them to disclose their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change mitigation strategies. But it has now signed a new three year global partnership, which will see it help the non profit group expand globally.

In particular, the bank will provide expertise on how the CDP should encourage greater disclosure of firms' involvement in carbon trading and green investment and support plans to increase the number of information requests issued to Chinese and Korean companies.

Earlier this year, the CDP issued 3,000 information requests to firms, but the bulk of these were based in the US and Europe with only 100 data requests going to Chinese firms.

Abyd Karmali, managing director and global head of carbon emissions at Merrill Lynch, said the CDP had helped investors identify climate change risks and opportunities while the information it gathered from firms had also allowed the bank to develop new carbon-related investment products. "For example, CDP data were instrumental for Merrill Lynch in launching our Capital Protected Carbon Leaders Europe Index Certificate in 2007," he said.