IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/hal-04353535.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Does Corporate Governance Help to Reduce Carbon Emissions? Some Empirical Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Cécile Cézanne

    (GREDEG - Groupe de Recherche en Droit, Economie et Gestion - UNS - Université Nice Sophia Antipolis (1965 - 2019) - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, UniCA - Université Côte d'Azur, Chaire Energie & Prospérité - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Institut Louis Bachelier)

  • Gaye del Lo

    (CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - LABEX ICCA - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPCité - Université Paris Cité - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Université Sorbonne Paris Nord)

  • Yves Kassi

    (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord)

  • Sandra Rigot

    (Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, CEPN - Centre d'Economie de l'Université Paris Nord - LABEX ICCA - UP13 - Université Paris 13 - Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3 - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UPCité - Université Paris Cité - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - Université Sorbonne Paris Nord, Chaire Energie & Prospérité - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - X - École polytechnique - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris - ENSAE Paris - École Nationale de la Statistique et de l'Administration Économique - Institut Louis Bachelier)

Abstract

Climate change is the biggest challenge that humanity is currently facing. Companies have become increasingly aware of the need to address this issue. They are affected by climate risks, just as their activities can contribute to climate change. In this paper, we analyze the role of firms in mitigating climate change through their model of corporate governance. We examine the impact of key organizational control and incentive arrangements (board size, board independence, board gender diversity, sustainability committee, and sustainability-based executive compensation) on firms' carbon emission intensities. Using a fixed effects model on a panel of 305 firms over the period 2015-2021, we show the importance of corporate governance for reducing Scope 1 and 2 emissions and reveal its limitations in efforts to reduce Scope 3 emissions. Board gender diversity, the presence of a sustainability committee, and the existence of sustainability compensation incentives help to reduce corporate carbon emissions. Our results also show that the effects are sensitive to the stock market index and to the type of industry. Based on these results, several managerial and political implications can be drawn to improve corporate carbon performance.

Suggested Citation

  • Cécile Cézanne & Gaye del Lo & Yves Kassi & Sandra Rigot, 2023. "Does Corporate Governance Help to Reduce Carbon Emissions? Some Empirical Evidence," Working Papers hal-04353535, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:hal-04353535
    DOI: 10.2139/ssrn.4621463
    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.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate governance board independence gender diversity sustainability committee sustainability-linked executive compensation GHG emissions Scope 1 Scope 2 Scope 3. JEL: G34; G38; M12; M14; O16; Q54; corporate governance; board independence; gender diversity; sustainability committee; sustainability-linked executive compensation; GHG emissions; Scope 1; Scope 2; Scope 3. JEL: G34;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • G38 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • M12 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Personnel Management; Executives; Executive Compensation
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • O16 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Financial Markets; Saving and Capital Investment; Corporate Finance and Governance
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance

    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:wpaper:hal-04353535. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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.