Corporate Voluntary Carbon Information Disclosure Evidence from Chinas Listed Companies 2Word文档格式.docx

Corporate Voluntary Carbon Information Disclosure Evidence from Chinas Listed Companies 2Word文档格式.docx

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6.4EmpiricalResults

7.5Conclusions

8.References

Thisarticleseekstoanswertwoquestions:

（i）whatfactorsdrivefirmstodecidewhetherornottodisclosetheinformationrelatedtotheirgreenhousegasemissions（alsocalledcarboninformation）?

（ii）whatforcesleadfirmstodisclosemorecarboninformation?

Usingdatahand-collectedfromtheannualCorporateSocialResponsibilityreportsofChina'

slistedcompaniesfrom2008to2012,wefindthefollowing:

（i）firmsthatoperateinsectorsofhigh-emissionindustriesaremorelikelytomakecarboninformationdisclosure（CIDhereafter）;

（ii）themorecompanieswithinoneindustrythatmakeCID,themorelikelyitisthatacompanyinthatindustrywillmakeCID;

（iii）companieshavingahighersalesrankwithinanindustryaremorelikelytomakeCID.

1Introduction

Climatechangeisbecomingoneofthemostimportantissuesofthetwenty-firstcentury,andfirmsarenowplayingacrucialroleindrivingtheglobaltransitionfromahightoalowcarboneconomy.Carboninformationdisclosures（CIDhereafter）,throughwhichcompaniesrespondtoclimatechangebyprovidingstandardinformationabouttheirgreenhousegasesemissions,isattractingincreasingattentionfromscholars,stakeholdersandregulators（e.g.Stanny,2010;

Matsumuraetal.,2011）.1ThisisbecausethroughCID,thestakeholders,includinggovernmentandthepublic,canbettermonitorandregulatefirms'

carbonemissions,thuscontributingtoimprovecorporateenvironmentperformance.Asaconsequence,corporateCIDshavebeensteadilyincreasinginbothsizeandcomplexityinthepastdecade.

TheresearchonCIDhasbeguntoemergeinrecentyears.Differentfromtheenvironmentalinformationdisclosure（EID,hereafter）,CIDismandatedbytheISO14064-1andthuscouldoffermoreformalandstandardisedinformationaswellasmorequantitativemeasuresofthelevelofcorporatecarbonemissiondisclosurethantheEID.2Scholarshaveexaminedthedeterminants（e.g.StannyandEly,1997;

Prado-Lorenzoetal.,2009;

KimandLyon,2010）andeffects（e.g.AndrewandCortese,2011;

Matsumuraetal.,2011;

HaighandShapiro,2012）ofcorporateCID.Forexample,StannyandEly（1997）showthatfactors,suchasfirmsize,institutionalownershipandforeignsalesarerelatedtothedisclosurebehaviourofUSSP500firms;

toexaminetheeffectoftheKyotoProtocoloncorporateCID,FreedmanandJaggi（2011）investigategreenhousegasreportinginEurope,Japan,Canada,India,andtheUSandfindthatexceptforIndiancompanies,companieslocatinginacountrythatratifiedtheprotocoltendtoreportmore.Matsumuraetal.（2011）examinethechoiceofvoluntarydisclosureofSP500firmsandtheeffectofcarbonemissionsonfirmvalue,documentingthatfirmvaluedecreaseswiththedisclosedcarbon-emissionlevels.

ExistingresearchonCIDgenerallyfocusontheempiricaltestoffirmsindevelopedcountries（Kolketal.,2008;

HaqueandDeegan,2010;

FreedmanandJaggi,2011）.ThecorporateCIDsindevelopingcountrieshavebeenlittleaddressedintheliterature.However,unlikedevelopedcountries,mostdevelopingcountries,thoughvulnerabletotheadverseimpactofclimatechange,mayresponddifferentlytotheproblemastheyhavetotakethedomesticresponsibilitiestomeetthehuman-developmentneedsofhundredsofmillionsofitspeoplethatarestilllivinginpoverty.Inaddition,carbonemissionproblemsmaybemoreseriousindevelopingcountriesduetotheirgenerallystrongerrateofeconomicgrowthandcontinueduseoffossilfuels（e.g.,RobertsandGrimes,1997）.Therefore,itisnotonlyinteresting,butalsonecessarytoexaminetheeconomicdriveandconsequenceassociatedwithcorporateCIDsinthedevelopingeconomy.Inthispaper,weattempttomakesomeeffortsalongthesedimensions.

Specifically,weinvestigatewhatwouldmotivateChinesefirmstovoluntarilyreleasecarbonemissioninformationandwhatmayinfluencethequalityoftheirCIDs.ThehighlightsofChinesefirmsarebasedonthefactthatChinahastoppedthelistofCO2emittingcountriessince2006,contributingalmostone-fourthoftheglobalCO2emission（EPA）.3Asthesecondlargeeconomicsystem,Chinahasthelargestpopulationandafastspeedofdevelopmentbutstillreliesoncoalasitsprimaryenergysource;

thenotableinfluenceofChinainreducingcarbonemissionscouldbeevidencedbytheimportantrolethatChinaplaysinthecurrentclimatechangenegotiationsamongdifferentcountries.

Unlikestudiesofdevelopedcountries,amajorprobleminstudyingcorporateCIDsinChinaisrelatedtotheavailabilityofqualifieddata.ManycompaniesindevelopedcountriesdisclosetheircarbonemissionsthroughtheCarbonDisclosureProject（CDP）,whichisanindependentnot-for-profitorganisationbasedintheUnitedKingdomandworkswithshareholdersandcorporationstoincreasetheirdisclosureofthegreenhousegasemissionsbyinvitingenterprisesallovertheworldtoreleaseinformationabouttheirgreenhousegasemissions.However,amongallthecompaniesthatareinvitedbyCDPtodisclosetheircarbonemissionstogetherwiththerelatedrisksandopportunitiesin2010,84percentof‘Europe300'

firmsand82percentof‘USS&

P500’firmsrespondedtoCDP'

sinvitationanddisclosedCID.Incontrast,only11percentof‘China100’firmsdidthesamething（CDP,2010）,resultingininadequateresearchliteratureonChina'

sCID.Thepaucityofresponsemayleadtothescarcityofresearch.

TomeasurethedegreeofcorporateCID,weextracttheCID-relatedinformationfromannualCorporateSocialResponsibility（CSRhereafter）reports.WeidentifyafirmtocommittoCIDifitsCSRreportcontainsinformationthatisofficiallyinvolvedintheCDP'

squestionnaire,andwescorethecollectedinformationpursuanttoISO14064-1.Usingasampleoflistednon-financialcompaniesinChinafromtheperiod2008through2012,weshowthatChinesefirmsthatareofhigh-emissionindustriesandofhigherpeerpressuresaremorelikelytodisclosecarbonemission.Andthequalityofdisclosureamongthesefirmsishigherthanthatoftheircounterparts'

.

OurmaincontributiontothecorporateCIDresearchconsistsofexaminingthedeterminantsofcorporatecarbondisclosuresandthedrivesofCIDqualityamongChinesecompanies.Relyingonthenewhand-collecteddata,weevidencethatfirmsize,industry,competitionstatusinfluencecorporatedecisionsonwhethertodisclosecarbonemissioninformationandhowmuchtodisclose.ThisstudymaybenefitinvestorsaswellasregulatorsbyprovidinginsighttothevoluntaryCIDintransitoryeconomiesandisvaluablefortheworld-wideeffortoncontrollingthecarbonemissionasChinesecompanieslargelyshapetheeffectofgreenhousegasemissionthroughouttheworld（LiuandDiamond,2005;

Bagnai,2009）.Besides,byprovidingevidenceonwhataffectscorporateresponsetoclimatechangeinChina,wefacilitateextendingthescopeofCIDliteraturetodevelopingcountries.Ourstudythereforemaybeofinteresttoinvestors,stakeholdersandregulatorsthroughouttheworld,helpingthembetterunderstandfirms'

environmentalpracticesandreportingbehavioursincarbonemission.

Thearticleisorganisedasfollows:

In'

LiteratureReviewandHypothesesDevelopment'

wereviewtheliteratureanddevelopourhypothesis.Dataandresearchdesignarepresentedin'

DataandResearchDesign'

andempiricalfindingsarereportedin'

EmpiricalResults'

respectively.In'

Conclusions'

weconcludetheimplications.

2LiteratureReviewandHypothesesDevelopment

2.1LiteratureReview

Thereisincreasinginterestintheliteraturetostudythecorporateresponsestocallsforenvironmentprotection.Issuesthatrelatetohowafirm'

sspecificfeaturesinfluenceitsenvironmentaleconomicbehaviours,aswellastheassociateenvironmentperformanceandfinancialimplications,arewidelydiscussed（Berthelotetal.,2003;

RothenbergandStanley2004;

Kraftetal.,2011）.Amongalltherelatedissues,theareaofenvironmentaldisclosureshasgainedlargelyamountedresearchfocusinthepastdecades（Deegan,2002）.Itiswelldocumentedthatenvironmentdisclosurehasbecomeastakeholderrequirementdemand（LeeandHutchison,2005;

JoseandLee,2006）,whichforcecompaniestoinstitutionaliseenvironmentalconcernsthroughpolicies,proceduresandsystems（RussoandFouts1997;

Jonesetal.1998）:

throughdisclosingenvironmentactivities,companiesmaybenefitfromlegitimatingthemselvesassocialresponsiblefirms（Berthelotetal.,2003;

Anbumozhietal.,2011）.However,despitethatseveralmandatoryEIDprogrammeshavebeenimplementedtoenhancethereliabilityofEID（Wangetal.,2004;

Garciaetal.,2007）,somestudieshaveshownthattheinformationdisclosedbyfirmscouldbeselective–ofwhichmosttendstobepositive,biased,andsubjecttomanagers'

discretions（Neuetal.,1998;

Berthelotetal.,2003）.

DespitesomesuccessfulEIDprogrammes（Al-Tuwaijrietal.,2004;

Garciaetal.,2007;

Blackman,2008）,mostliteraturehassuggestedthatthelevelaswellasthequalityofEIDisgenerallylowerindevelopingcountries（e.