IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/jsd123/v10y2017i1p71.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of Corporate Climate Change Mitigation Targets in Major United States Companies

Author

Listed:
  • Haoyu Yin
  • Fei Mo
  • Derek Wang

Abstract

Setting greenhouse gas emission target is a critical step to meet the challenge of climate change. While the debate on global and national carbon emission targets has dominated every major climate change conference, little is known about how the firms set emission targets. Using a dataset on S&P 500 companies in the United States, we investigate the determinants of firm-level climate change mitigation targets, including target adoption and target metric (intensity target vs. absolute target). We find that companies with larger size, higher growth, better innovation, weaker capital constraint, and higher government pressure are more likely to establish emission targets. Further, firm growth has a negative (positive) and significant association with the use of absolute (intensity) target. This may be due to the fact that intensity target can better accommodate growth than absolute target. Policymakers and corporate managers may resort to those determinant factors in designing climate change policies to induce desirable firm-level target-setting behaviors.

Suggested Citation

  • Haoyu Yin & Fei Mo & Derek Wang, 2017. "Determinants of Corporate Climate Change Mitigation Targets in Major United States Companies," Journal of Sustainable Development, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(1), pages 1-71, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:jsd123:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:71
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/download/64084/35793
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/jsd/article/view/64084
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Anton, W.R.Q.Wilma Rose Q. & Deltas, George & Khanna, Madhu, 2004. "Incentives for environmental self-regulation and implications for environmental performance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 632-654, July.
    2. Lutsey, Nicholas P. & Sperling, Dan, 2008. "America's Bottom-Up Climate Change Mitigation Policy," Institute of Transportation Studies, Working Paper Series qt8jj755d4, Institute of Transportation Studies, UC Davis.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Derek Wang, 2017. "A Comparative Study of Firm-Level Climate Change Mitigation Targets in the European Union and the United States," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, March.
    2. Brown, Philip & Roper, Simon, 2017. "Innovation and networks in New Zealand farming," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 61(3), July.
    3. Lise Tole & Gary Koop, 2013. "Estimating the impact on efficiency of the adoption of a voluntary environmental standard: an empirical study of the global copper mining industry," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 39(1), pages 35-45, February.
    4. Jingze Jiang, 2016. "Peer Pressure in Voluntary Environmental Programs: a Case of the Bag Rewards Program," Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Springer, vol. 16(2), pages 155-190, June.
    5. Kube, Roland & von Graevenitz, Kathrine & Löschel, Andreas & Massier, Philipp, 2019. "Do voluntary environmental programs reduce emissions? EMAS in the German manufacturing sector," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(S1).
    6. Arimura, Toshi H. & Darnall, Nicole & Katayama, Hajime, 2011. "Is ISO 14001 a gateway to more advanced voluntary action? The case of green supply chain management," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 61(2), pages 170-182, March.
    7. Zhang, Ming-ang & Lu, Shuling & Zhang, Sihan & Bai, Yanfeng, 2023. "The unintended consequence of minimum wage hikes: Evidence based on firms' pollution emission," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. Cloé Garnache & Scott M. Swinton & Joseph A. Herriges & Frank Lupi & R. Jan Stevenson, 2016. "Solving the Phosphorus Pollution Puzzle: Synthesis and Directions for Future Research," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 98(5), pages 1334-1359.
    9. Johannes Urpelainen, 2011. "Frontrunners and Laggards: The Strategy of Environmental Regulation under Uncertainty," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 50(3), pages 325-346, November.
    10. Wang, Chao & Zhang, Yue-Jun, 2022. "The effect of environmental regulation and skill premium on the inflow of FDI:Evidence from Chinese industrial sectors," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 227-242.
    11. Krishnadas Nanath & R Radhakrishna Pillai, 2021. "Towards a framework for sustaining Green IT initiatives: an empirical investigation," Information Technology and Management, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 193-206, September.
    12. Wang, Derek D. & Sueyoshi, Toshiyuki, 2018. "Climate change mitigation targets set by global firms: Overview and implications for renewable energy," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 386-398.
    13. Bolinger, Mark & Wiser, Ryan, 2009. "Wind power price trends in the United States: Struggling to remain competitive in the face of strong growth," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 1061-1071, March.
    14. Berrone, Pascual & Gelabert, Liliana & Fosfuri, Andrea & Gomez-Mejia, Luis R., 2007. "Can institutional forces create competitive advantage? An empirical examination of environmental innovation," IESE Research Papers D/723, IESE Business School.
    15. Chung-Hao Chang & Shih-Fang Lo, 2022. "Impact Analysis of a National and Corporate Carbon Emission Reduction Target on Renewable Electricity Use: A Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-18, February.
    16. Robert Innes & Abdoul G. Sam, 2008. "Voluntary Pollution Reductions and the Enforcement of Environmental Law: An Empirical Study of the 33/50 Program," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 51(2), pages 271-296, May.
    17. Krause, Rachel M., 2012. "The impact of municipal governments' renewable electricity use on greenhouse gas emissions in the United States," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(C), pages 246-253.
    18. Roeland Bracke & Tom Verbeke, 2007. "What Distinguishes EMAS Participants? An Exploration of Company Characteristics," Working Papers 2007.37, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    19. Gomi, Kei & Shimada, Kouji & Matsuoka, Yuzuru, 2010. "A low-carbon scenario creation method for a local-scale economy and its application in Kyoto city," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(9), pages 4783-4796, September.
    20. Runst, Petrik & Bettendorf, Axel, 2017. "Energieeffizienz in Klein- und Kleinstunternehmen des Handwerks," Göttinger Beiträge zur Handwerksforschung 16, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:ibn:jsd123:v:10:y:2017:i:1:p:71. 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: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    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.