About 90% of world trade moves by sea. The figure can look like a neutral statistic, but it has only recently begun to be assessed systematically as a supply chain risk. In the week of June 15, 2026, CDP will build that question into corporate disclosure. Ocean data will be added for the first time to the world's only independent environmental disclosure system.
What Changes
CDP is a system that collects standardized corporate data on environmental risks such as climate change, forests, and water security, and provides it to institutional investors and financial institutions. In 2025, more than 23,100 companies, cities, states, and regions worldwide disclosed environmental data through the system. From an investor's perspective, whether a company appears in this database is becoming a prerequisite for evaluating its environmental performance.
The new ocean questions do not simply ask whether a company recognizes ocean risk. They go into target setting, supply chain engagement, board-level oversight, and impacts on strategy and financial planning. The structure asks how ocean risk is embedded in management decisions.
The Weight of the 90% Maritime Transport Figure
Climate change
CDP's core theme since its founding. It covers Scope 1-3 emissions and transition plans.
Forests
Deforestation risk across upstream commodity sourcing such as palm oil, soy, and timber.
Water security
Water withdrawal, discharge, and water stress. This carries particular weight in water-intensive manufacturing.
Biodiversity
Nature-related risk. Assessment criteria are being shaped alongside the TNFD framework.
Plastics
Risks and responses related to plastic production, use, and disposal.
Ocean, new in 2026
Maritime transport and ocean-related risk enter disclosure for the first time. This is the subject of this article.
The system that started with climate change is quickly covering nearly the full range of nature-related risks. Ocean is the sixth piece.
CDP cited the fact that about 90% of world trade depends on maritime transport as a rationale for introducing the disclosure. In electronics and manufacturing, materials procurement and finished-goods shipment commonly pass through multiple sea routes. Disruption on major routes such as the Taiwan Strait, Strait of Malacca, and Suez Canal has already shown, through the container crises of recent years, how directly shipping bottlenecks can affect whole industries. The problem is that no common metric has existed for evaluating these risks. CDP says explicitly that ocean disclosure is intended to close that information gap.
The Supplier Engagement Question Asks How Deeply Companies Intervene
Target setting
Whether the company has concrete quantitative targets for ocean-related risks and opportunities. The question is not awareness but measurable targets.
Supply chain engagement
How the company engages not only internally but also with suppliers' management of ocean-related risk. Tier 1 and lower tiers may become part of the assessment.
Board oversight
Whether ocean issues are discussed at board level, and whether they are treated as a management matter.
The notable item is supply chain engagement. This asks whether a company understands and influences the ocean-risk management of its suppliers, not just its own response. It has the same structure as climate Scope 3 disclosure and will function as pressure on upstream and downstream suppliers. For procurement teams, it may appear as a practical burden to revise supplier evaluation criteria.
The Outer Ring of ESG Assessment Keeps Closing
Moving from five CDP themes to six is not just an increase in the number of questions. Financial institutions will have more input data when calculating environmental scores, and as scoring becomes more precise, the relative position of non-disclosing companies changes. The era of saying that ocean risk has never been asked about is ending.
In contrast to the United States, where the SEC has moved toward rescinding its climate disclosure rule, global frameworks such as CDP continue to expand their disclosure themes. Even without a statutory obligation, indirect pressure through investors and business partners can become effective. That pattern overlaps with the spread of TNFD, the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, and biodiversity-related disclosure.
Looking Toward the Week of June 15
The disclosure cycle begins in the week of June 15, 2026. Whether a company must answer ocean-related questions at that point will depend on its CDP participation status and disclosure theme selection. However, if major customers or Tier 1 suppliers participate in CDP, inquiries may arrive indirectly through the supply chain engagement questions.
The first useful check is to understand the current level of dependence on maritime transport. The share of sea routes in parts procurement and product shipment, concentration risk on key shipping lanes, and the geographic distribution of suppliers are all inputs for ocean disclosure and also useful for business continuity planning. Companies with this data already in hand will face a different response cost in the next disclosure cycle from those that do not.