An international study of determinants of voluntary carbon assurance

![CDATA[Driven by a scarcity of literature on carbon emission assurance globally, this study investigates corporate incentives for external carbon emission assurance as a way of responding to climate change at an international level with the choice of assurance provider being accounting firms or non-accounting firms. The sample comprises of 5184 firms across 44 countries that reported to CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) from 2010-2014. The descriptive result suggests that 67% of the sample firms had their carbon emission assured and 53% preferred accounting firms over non-accounting firms. Based on panel data logistic regression model, it was found that firms with higher exposure to carbon risks are more likely to adopt external carbon emission assurance and to choose an accounting firm as an assurer. Moreover, firms with an effective environmental committee, with carbon reduction incentives or higher carbon disclosure scores that had adopted carbon reduction initiatives are more likely to have their carbon emission assured and more likely to choose non-accounting firms as their assurer. Finally, it was found that the adoption of external carbon emission assurance increases during the period under the investigation. This study contributes to the literature by empirically testing the validity and applicability of legitimacy, signal and institutional theory for the emerging practice of corporate carbon assurance.]]