What Drives Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emissions Disclosure?

Abstract

Voluntary disclosure should naturally arise in theory but may not in practice due to real-world frictions. This is important as self-selection bias could lead to erroneous results in statistical analyses of the disclosed data. This paper investigates climate-related disclosure in a comprehensive, global panel of publicly listed firms from 2010-2017, studying a diverse set of firm, sector and geographic characteristics, as predictors of voluntary response to the largest standardized climate-related reporting portal. The patterns I uncover demonstrate evidence of strong behavioral factors as well as being consistent with theories of voluntary disclosure which emphasize the role of disclosure costs and verifiability. Unsurprisingly, I find that firm size, sector, and past response quality predict response. The staged introduction of a reporting fee on the portal provides results that are particularly striking, with the small fee being associated with a significant decrease of up to 3% in the response rate of firms reporting non-assured information but with only an insignificant effect on assured reporters. These results have implications for policymakers seeking to make sustainability disclosure an integral part of financial disclosure, as well as for institutional investors seeking to understand the quality of climate-related disclosures.