IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v14y2022i16p10000-d886878.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

What Can Machine Learning Teach Us about Australian Climate Risk Disclosures?

Author

Listed:
  • Callan Harker

    (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

  • Maureen Hassall

    (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

  • Paul Lant

    (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

  • Nikodem Rybak

    (School of Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

  • Paul Dargusch

    (School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, The University of Queensland, St. Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia)

Abstract

There seems to be no agreed taxonomy for climate-related risks. The information in firms’ climate risk disclosures represents a new resource for identifying the priorities and strategies of Australian companies’ management of climate risk. This research surveys 839 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange for the presence of climate risk disclosures, identifying 201 disclosures on climate risk. The types of climate risks and the risk management strategies were extracted and evaluated using machine learning. The analysis revealed that Australian firms are focused on acute physical climate risks, followed by market and regulatory risks. The predominant management strategy for these risks was to use a risk reduction approach, rather than avoiding or transferring risk. The analysis showed that key Australian industry sectors, such as materials, banking, insurance, and energy are focusing on different mixtures of risk types, but they are all primarily managing risks through risk-reduction strategies. An underlying driver of climate risk disclosure was composed of the financial implications of climate risk, particularly with respect to acute physical risks. The research showed that emission reductions represent a primary consideration for Australian firms in their disclosures identifying how they are responding to climate risk. Further research using machine learning to evaluate climate risk disclosure should focus on analysing entire climate risk reports for key topics and trends over time.

Suggested Citation

  • Callan Harker & Maureen Hassall & Paul Lant & Nikodem Rybak & Paul Dargusch, 2022. "What Can Machine Learning Teach Us about Australian Climate Risk Disclosures?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-22, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10000-:d:886878
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10000/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/16/10000/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohammad Mojtahedi & Sidney Newton & Jason Meding, 2017. "Predicting the resilience of transport infrastructure to a natural disaster using Cox’s proportional hazards regression model," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 85(2), pages 1119-1133, January.
    2. Jung Eun Kang & D.K. Yoon & Jinyoung Rhee, 2017. "Factors contributing to business actions in response to climate change in Korea," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(3), pages 385-403, March.
    3. Marshall Burke & Solomon M. Hsiang & Edward Miguel, 2015. "Global non-linear effect of temperature on economic production," Nature, Nature, vol. 527(7577), pages 235-239, November.
    4. Tobias Pfrommer & Timo Goeschl & Alexander Proelss & Martin Carrier & Johannes Lenhard & Henrike Martin & Ulrike Niemeier & Hauke Schmidt, 2019. "Establishing causation in climate litigation: admissibility and reliability," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 67-84, January.
    5. Brett Christophers, 2017. "Climate Change and Financial Instability: Risk Disclosure and the Problematics of Neoliberal Governance," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(5), pages 1108-1127, September.
    6. Le Luo & Qingliang Tang, 2021. "Corporate governance and carbon performance: role of carbon strategy and awareness of climate risk," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(2), pages 2891-2934, June.
    7. Luke J. Harrington & Friederike E. L Otto, 2019. "Attributable damage liability in a non-linear climate," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 153(1), pages 15-20, March.
    8. Samira Demaria & Sandra Rigot, 2021. "Corporate environmental reporting: Are French firms compliant with the Task Force on Climate Financial Disclosures' recommendations?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 721-738, January.
    9. Niranjan Chipalkatti & Quan Vu Le & Meenakshi Rishi, 2021. "Sustainability and Society: Do Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors Matter for Foreign Direct Investment?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-18, September.
    10. Caroline Flammer & Michael W. Toffel & Kala Viswanathan, 2021. "Shareholder activism and firms' voluntary disclosure of climate change risks," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(10), pages 1850-1879, October.
    11. Frank Schiemann & Alice Sakhel, 2019. "Carbon Disclosure, Contextual Factors, and Information Asymmetry: The Case of Physical Risk Reporting," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 791-818, August.
    12. Yonatan Strauch & Truzaar Dordi & Angela Carter, 2020. "Constraining fossil fuels based on 2 °C carbon budgets: the rapid adoption of a transformative concept in politics and finance," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(2), pages 181-201, May.
    13. Jiang, Yan & Luo, Le & Xu, JianFeng & Shao, XiaoRui, 2021. "The value relevance of corporate voluntary carbon disclosure: Evidence from the United States and BRIC countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3).
    14. Lyton Chithambo & Ishmael Tingbani & Godfred Afrifa Agyapong & Ernest Gyapong & Isaac Sakyi Damoah, 2020. "Corporate voluntary greenhouse gas reporting: Stakeholder pressure and the mediating role of the chief executive officer," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1666-1683, May.
    15. Nadia Ameli & Paul Drummond & Alexander Bisaro & Michael Grubb & Hugues Chenet, 2020. "Climate finance and disclosure for institutional investors: why transparency is not enough," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 160(4), pages 565-589, June.
    16. Jakob Thomä & Clare Murray & Vincent Jerosch-Herold & Janina Magdanz, 2021. "Do you manage what you measure? Investor views on the question of climate actions with empirical results from the Swiss pension fund and insurance sector," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(1), pages 47-61, January.
    17. Azlan Amran & Vinod Periasamy & Abdul Hadi Zulkafli, 2014. "Determinants of Climate Change Disclosure by Developed and Emerging Countries in Asia Pacific," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(3), pages 188-204, May.
    18. Pearson, Peter J.G. & Foxon, Timothy J., 2012. "A low carbon industrial revolution? Insights and challenges from past technological and economic transformations," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 117-127.
    19. Bui, Binh & de Villiers, Charl, 2017. "Business strategies and management accounting in response to climate change risk exposure and regulatory uncertainty," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(1), pages 4-24.
    20. Tek Maraseni & Kathryn Reardon-Smith, 2019. "Meeting National Emissions Reduction Obligations: A Case Study of Australia," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-13, January.
    21. Nicky Phillips & Bianca Nogrady, 2020. "The race to decipher how climate change influenced Australia’s record fires," Nature, Nature, vol. 577(7792), pages 610-612, January.
    22. Su‐Yol Lee & Yun‐Seon Park & Robert D. Klassen, 2015. "Market Responses to Firms' Voluntary Climate Change Information Disclosure and Carbon Communication," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 1-12, January.
    23. Hindmarsh, Richard & Alidoust, Sara, 2019. "Rethinking Australian CSG transitions in participatory contexts of local social conflict, community engagement, and shifts towards cleaner energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 272-282.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lorena Espina-Romero & José Gregorio Noroño Sánchez & Humberto Gutiérrez Hurtado & Helga Dworaczek Conde & Yessenia Solier Castro & Luz Emérita Cervera Cajo & Jose Rio Corredoira, 2023. "Which Industrial Sectors Are Affected by Artificial Intelligence? A Bibliometric Analysis of Trends and Perspectives," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-18, August.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tom Deweerdt, 2022. "Why Is the Australian Health Sector So Far behind in Practising Climate-Related Disclosures?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(19), pages 1-11, October.
    2. Dewan Muktadir‐Al‐Mukit & Firoz Haroon Bhaiyat, 2024. "Impact of corporate governance diversity on carbon emission under environmental policy via the mandatory nonfinancial reporting regulation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(2), pages 1397-1417, February.
    3. Qingxia (Jenny) Wang, 2023. "Financial effects of carbon risk and carbon disclosure: A review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(4), pages 4175-4219, December.
    4. Ayman Hassan Bazhair & Saleh F. A. Khatib & Hamzeh Al Amosh, 2022. "Taking Stock of Carbon Disclosure Research While Looking to the Future: A Systematic Literature Review," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(20), pages 1-24, October.
    5. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Riccardo Macchioni & Annamaria Zampella, 2018. "Do investors find carbon information useful? Evidence from Italian firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1031-1056, May.
    6. Ongsakul, Viput & Papangkorn, Suwongrat & Jiraporn, Pornsit, 2023. "Estimating the effect of climate change exposure on firm value using climate policy uncertainty: A text-based approach," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 40(C).
    7. Xu, Weidong & Gao, Xin & Xu, Hao & Li, Donghui, 2022. "Does global climate risk encourage companies to take more risks?," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    8. Jeanne, Amar & Demaria, Samira & Rigot, Sandra, 2023. "What are the drivers of corporates' climate transparency? Evidence from the S&P 1200 index," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    9. Baer, Moritz & Campiglio, Emanuele & Deyris, Jérôme, 2021. "It takes two to dance: Institutional dynamics and climate-related financial policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 190(C).
    10. Amar Hisham Jaaffar & Azlan Amran & Jegatheesan Rajadurai, 2018. "The Impact of Institutional Pressures of Climate Change Concerns on Corporate Environmental Reporting Practices: A Descriptive Study of Malaysia’s Environmentally Sensitive Public Listed Companies," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(2), pages 21582440187, May.
    11. Vestrelli, Roberto & Fronzetti Colladon, Andrea & Pisello, Anna Laura, 2024. "When attention to climate change matters: The impact of climate risk disclosure on firm market value," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    12. Ruiqin Mou & Tao Ma, 2023. "A Study on the Quality and Determinants of Climate Information Disclosure of A-Share-Listed Banks," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-19, May.
    13. Halil Emre Akbaş & Seda Canikli, 2018. "Determinants of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation on Turkish Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    14. Lily Hsueh, 2019. "Opening up the firm: What explains participation and effort in voluntary carbon disclosure by global businesses? An analysis of internal firm factors and dynamics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1302-1322, November.
    15. Le Luo & Qingliang Tang & Hanlu Fan & Jamie Ayers, 2023. "Corporate carbon assurance and the quality of carbon disclosure," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 657-690, March.
    16. Daniel Kouloukoui & Sônia Maria da Silva Gomes & Marcia Mara de Oliveira Marinho & Ednildo Andrade Torres & Asher Kiperstok & Pieter de Jong, 2018. "Disclosure of climate risk information by the world’s largest companies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 1251-1279, December.
    17. Francesco Lamperti & Andrea Roventini, 2022. "Beyond climate economics orthodoxy: impacts and policies in the agent-based integrated-assessment DSK model," European Journal of Economics and Economic Policies: Intervention, Edward Elgar Publishing, vol. 19(3), pages 357-380, December.
    18. Hjort, Ingrid, 2016. "Potential Climate Risks in Financial Markets: A Literature Overview," Memorandum 01/2016, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    19. Daniel Kouloukoui & Marcia Mara de Oliveira Marinho & Sônia Maria da Silva Gomes & Pieter de Jong & Asher Kiperstok & Ednildo Andrade Torres, 2020. "The impact of the board of directors on business climate change management: case of Brazilian companies," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 25(1), pages 127-147, January.
    20. Zhang, Xingmin & Zhang, Shuai & Lu, Liping, 2022. "The banking instability and climate change: Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 106(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:16:p:10000-:d:886878. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.