Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    271 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Carbon information is becoming more and more important in the decision making of stake holders, but there is growing concern regarding the reliability of corporate carbon disclo sure and a lack of empirical studies addressing this issue. The purpose of this paper is to examine whether voluntary carbon disclosure reflects firms’ true carbon performance. Level of carbon disclosure was measured based on content analysis of Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) reports, and our carbon performance index focused on both carbon intensity of emissions and carbon mitigation. Based on a sample of 474 U.S., U.K., and Australian firms, our findings show a significant positive association between carbon disclosure and performance, suggesting that firms’ voluntary carbon disclosure in the CDP is indicative of their underlying actual carbon performance. This result is consistent with signalling theory. Our findings are useful for corporate stakeholders and governmental policymakers who are concerned about the quality of voluntary greenhouse gas disclosure.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)191-205
    Number of pages15
    JournalJournal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics
    Volume10
    Issue number3
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2014

    Fingerprint

    Dive into the research topics of 'Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

    Cite this