Real effects of greenhouse gas disclosures

Abstract

This study investigates the valuation and real effects of the mandatory disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission costs from the perspective of “double materiality.” We consider a firm with a Cobb-Douglas production function that combines GHG-related and non-GHG-related investments to produce short-term and long-term returns. In particular, the GHG-related investment entails short-term and long-term social costs of GHG emissions, including corporate costs and negative externalities. We demonstrate how the mandatory disclosure of the long-term costs of GHG emissions affects capital market valuations and corporate investment decisions relative to a non-disclosure regime. The social welfare in an accounting regime hinges on three parameters: the persistence of the short-term investment return, the ratio of the productivity of GHG-related investment to that of non-GHG-related investment, and the social cost parameter for GHG emissions. Our findings suggest that disclosing the long-term costs of GHG emissions may be detrimental to social welfare. Specifically, the non-disclosure regime results in higher social welfare than the disclosure regime for high values of these parameters.