IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/journl/halshs-02063313.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and corporate report

Author

Listed:
  • Tiphaine Jerome

    (CERAG - Centre d'études et de recherches appliquées à la gestion - UPMF - Université Pierre Mendès France - Grenoble 2 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Florence Depoers

    (Laboratoire de Recherche Magellan - UJML - Université Jean Moulin - Lyon 3 - Université de Lyon - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises (IAE) - Lyon)

  • Thomas Jeanjean

    (GREGH - Groupement de Recherche et d'Etudes en Gestion à HEC - HEC Paris - Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

As global warming continues to attract growing levels of attention, various stakeholders (states, general public, investors, and lobbyists) have put climate change on corporate agendas and expect firms to disclose relevant greenhouse gas (GHG) information. In this paper, we investigate the consistency of the GHG information voluntarily disclosed by French listed firms through two different communication channels: corporate reports (CR) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). More precisely, we contrast the amounts of GHG emissions reported and the methodological explanations provided (named ‘traceability’) in each channel. Consistent with a stakeholder theory perspective, we find that GHG amounts are significantly lower in the CR than in the CDP. We also find that firms increase the CR figures’ traceability when there is a discrepancy between disclosures in the two channels. We suggest that the aim of this greater traceability is to enhance information credibility across the different channels used.
(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)

Suggested Citation

  • Tiphaine Jerome & Florence Depoers & Thomas Jeanjean, 2014. "Voluntary disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and corporate report," Post-Print halshs-02063313, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02063313
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    To our knowledge, this item is not available for download. To find whether it is available, there are three options:
    1. Check below whether another version of this item is available online.
    2. Check on the provider's web page whether it is in fact available.
    3. Perform a search for a similarly titled item that would be available.

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Etienne Farvaque & Catherine Refait-Alexandre & Dhafer Saïdane, 2011. "Corporate disclosure: A review of its (direct and indirect) benefits and costs," International Economics, CEPII research center, issue 128, pages 5-31.
    2. Jacob Brower & Vijay Mahajan, 2013. "Driven to Be Good: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective on the Drivers of Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 117(2), pages 313-331, October.
    3. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7-8), pages 1168-1188.
    4. Andrew, Jane & Cortese, Corinne, 2011. "Accounting for climate change and the self-regulation of carbon disclosures," Accounting forum, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 130-138.
    5. repec:cii:cepiei:2011-q4-128- is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Stephen Brammer & Stephen Pavelin, 2006. "Voluntary Environmental Disclosures by Large UK Companies," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1168-1188, September.
    7. Neu, D. & Warsame, H. & Pedwell, K., 1998. "Managing public impressions: environmental disclosures in annual reports," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 23(3), pages 265-282, April.
    8. Deegan, Craig & Blomquist, Christopher, 2006. "Stakeholder influence on corporate reporting: An exploration of the interaction between WWF-Australia and the Australian minerals industry," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 31(4-5), pages 343-372.
    9. Jane Andrew & Corinne Cortese, 2011. "Accounting for climate change and the self-regulation of carbon disclosures," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 130-138, September.
    10. Pratima Bansal & Geoffrey Kistruck, 2006. "Seeing Is (Not) Believing: Managing the Impressions of the Firm’s Commitment to the Natural Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 67(2), pages 165-180, August.
    11. Florence Depoers, 2010. "Gouvernance et qualité de l'information sur les gaz à effet de serre publiée par les sociétés cotées," Comptabilité - Contrôle - Audit, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 16(3), pages 127-151.
    12. Florence Depoers, 2010. "Gouvernance et qualité de l'information sur les gaz à effet de serre publiée par les sociétés cotées," ACCRA, Association francophone de comptabilité, vol. 16(3), pages 127-151.
    13. Elizabeth Stanny & Kirsten Ely, 2008. "Corporate environmental disclosures about the effects of climate change," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(6), pages 338-348, November.
    14. Cedric Dawkins & John Fraas, 2011. "Coming Clean: The Impact of Environmental Performance and Visibility on Corporate Climate Change Disclosure," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 100(2), pages 303-322, May.
    15. repec:cii:cepiei:2011-q4-128-1 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Erin M. Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "Responding to public and private politics: corporate disclosure of climate change strategies," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(11), pages 1157-1178, November.
    17. Michaela Rankin & Carolyn Windsor & Dina Wahyuni, 2011. "An investigation of voluntary corporate greenhouse gas emissions reporting in a market governance system," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1037-1070, October.
    18. Erin Marie Reid & Michael W. Toffel, 2008. "Responding to Public and Private Politics: Corporate Disclosure of Climate Change Strategies," Harvard Business School Working Papers 09-019, Harvard Business School, revised Jun 2009.
    19. Freedman, Martin & Jaggi, Bikki, 2005. "Global warming, commitment to the Kyoto protocol, and accounting disclosures by the largest global public firms from polluting industries," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 215-232.
    20. Roberts, Robin W., 1992. "Determinants of corporate social responsibility disclosure: An application of stakeholder theory," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 17(6), pages 595-612, August.
    21. Julie Cotter & Muftah M Najah, 2012. "Institutional investor influence on global climate change disclosure practices," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 37(2), pages 169-187, August.
    22. Edward Romar, 2009. "Snapshots of the Future: Darfur, Katrina, and Maple Sugar (Climate Change, the Less Well-Off and Business Ethics)," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(1), pages 121-132, February.
    23. Jeremy Galbreath, 2011. "To What Extent is Business Responding to Climate Change? Evidence from a Global Wine Producer," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 421-432, December.
    24. Cheng-Li Huang & Fan-Hua Kung, 2010. "Drivers of Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder Expectation: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 435-451, October.
    25. Jill F. Solomon & Aris Solomon & Simon D. Norton & Nathan L. Joseph, 2011. "Private climate change reporting: an emerging discourse of risk and opportunity?," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 24(8), pages 1119-1148, October.
    26. Ans Kolk & David Levy & Jonatan Pinkse, 2008. "Corporate Responses in an Emerging Climate Regime: The Institutionalization and Commensuration of Carbon Disclosure," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 719-745.
    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. 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.
    2. Breeda Comyns, 2016. "Determinants of GHG Reporting: An Analysis of Global Oil and Gas Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(2), pages 349-369, June.
    3. Ishmael Tingbani & Lyton Chithambo & Venancio Tauringana & Nikolaos Papanikolaou, 2020. "Board gender diversity, environmental committee and greenhouse gas voluntary disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2194-2210, September.
    4. Zahra Borghei, 2021. "Carbon disclosure: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5255-5280, December.
    5. Ismail N.B. & Sébastien Alcouffe & Galy N & Ceulemans K, 2020. "The impact of international sustainability initiatives on Life Cycle Assessment voluntary disclosures: The case of France’s CAC40 listed companies," Post-Print hal-03082800, HAL.
    6. Fan, Hanlu & Tang, Qingliang & Pan, Lipeng, 2021. "An international study of carbon information asymmetry and independent carbon assurance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 53(1).
    7. 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.
    8. Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2014. "Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 191-205.
    9. Sun Ae Kim & Jong Dae Kim, 2022. "Voluntary Carbon Disclosure (VCD) Strategy under the Korean ETS: With the Interaction among Carbon Performance, Foreign Sales Ratio and Media Visibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-19, September.
    10. Kentaro Azuma & Akira Higashida, 2024. "Climate change disclosure and evolving institutional investor salience: Roles of the Principles for Responsible Investment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(4), pages 3669-3686, May.
    11. Mumtaheena Anwar & Sohanur Rahman & Md. Nurul Kabir, 2021. "Does national carbon pricing policy affect voluntary environmental disclosures? A global evidence," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 23(2), pages 211-244, April.
    12. Thomas Thijssens & Laury Bollen & Harold Hassink, 2015. "Secondary Stakeholder Influence on CSR Disclosure: An Application of Stakeholder Salience Theory," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 873-891, December.
    13. Walid Ben‐Amar & Philip McIlkenny, 2015. "Board Effectiveness and the Voluntary Disclosure of Climate Change Information," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 704-719, December.
    14. Maria Aluchna & Maria Roszkowska‐Menkes & Sana Khan, 2024. "Corporate governance perspective on environmental reporting: Literature review and future research agenda," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 1550-1577, May.
    15. 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.
    16. Tauringana, Venancio & Chithambo, Lyton, 2015. "The effect of DEFRA guidance on greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 425-444.
    17. Faisal Faisal & Erika Dwi Andiningtyas & Tarmizi Achmad & Haryanto Haryanto & Wahyu Meiranto, 2018. "The content and determinants of greenhouse gas emission disclosure: Evidence from Indonesian companies," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1397-1406, November.
    18. Yuchen Shen & Mohammad Tazul Islam & Michiyuki Yagi & Katsuhiko Kokubu, 2015. "How do firms' climate-related management and strategy affect climate change risks and opportunities awareness?," Discussion Papers 2015-26, Kobe University, Graduate School of Business Administration.
    19. Antonio J. Mateo-Márquez & José M. González-González & Constancio Zamora-Ramírez, 2021. "Components of Countries’ Regulative Dimensions and Voluntary Carbon Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    20. Franck Aggeri & Morgane Le Breton, 2016. "The regulation of transparency in the field of CSR," Post-Print halshs-01368029, HAL.

    More about this item

    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:hal:journl:halshs-02063313. 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: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    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.