Abstract
Investors and other stakeholders are starting to pay attention to firms’ carbon emissions and carbon disclosure. This study investigated the effects of voluntary carbon disclosure information and carbon emissions on firm value from listed companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen 300 (CSI 300) Index. We also apply the Probit model to predict the probability of voluntary carbon disclosure information. The results indicate that the increase in carbon emissions has a negative impact on firm value. The action that companies select to disclose carbon emissions has a positive impact on firm value. The effect of leverage ratio on VCDI is increasing year by year. What is more, the probability of the average size firm carbon disclosure was 30.73% in 2020. Company management needs to pay attention to the risks caused by carbon emissions and ensure the quality of carbon disclosure information, especially the authenticity and reliability of the information.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
References
Albertini E (2013) Does environmental management improve financial performance? A meta-analytical review. Organ Environ 26(4):431–457
Alsaifi K, Elnahass M, Salama A (2020) Carbon disclosure and financial performance: UK environmental policy. Bus Strateg Environ 29(2):711–726
Barth ME, McNichols MF (1994) Estimation and market valuation of environmental liabilities relating to superfund sites. J Account Res 32:177–209
Barth ME, Beaver WH, Landsman WR (2001) The relevance of the value relevance literature for financial accounting standard setting: Another view. J Account Econ 31(1-3):77–104
Brouwers R, Schoubben F, Van Hulle C (2018) The influence of carbon cost pass through on the link between carbon emission and corporate financial performance in the context of the European Union Emission Trading Scheme. Bus Strateg Environ 27:1422–1436
Bui B, Moses O, Houqe MN (2020) Carbon disclosure, emission intensity and cost of equity capital: multi-country evidence. Account Finance 60:47–71
Busch T, Lewandowski S (2018) Corporate carbon and financial performance a meta-analysis. J Ind Ecol 22(4):745–759
Campbell K, Sefcik SE, Soderstrom NS (2003) Disclosure of private information and reduction of uncertainty: Environmental liabilities in the chemical industry. Rev Quant Finance Account 21(4):349–378
Chapple L, Clarkson PM, Gold DL (2013) The cost of carbon: Capital market effects of the proposed emission trading scheme (ETS). Abacus 49:1–33
Clarkson PM, Li Y, Richardson GD, Vasvari FP (2008) Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis. Acc Organ Soc 33(4-5):303–327
Cormier D, Magnan M, Morard B (1993) The impact of corporate pollution on market valuation: some empirical evidence. Ecol Econ 8(2):135–155
Deegan C, Rankin M (1996) Do Australian companies report environmental news objectively? An analysis of environmental disclosures by firms prosecuted successfully by the Environmental Protection Authority. Account Audit Accountability 9(2):50–67
Dhaliwal DS, Li OZ, Tsang A, Yang YG (2011) Voluntary nonfinancial disclosure and the cost of equity capital: The initiation of corporate social responsibility reporting. Account Rev 86:59–100
Fombrun C, Shanley M (1990) What’s in a name? reputaion building and corporate strategy. Acad Manage J 33(2):233–258
Freedman M, Jaggi B (1982) Pollution disclosures, pollution performance and economic performance. Omega 10(2):167–176
Hassel L, Nilsson H, Nyquist S (2005) The value relevance of environmental performance. Eur Account Rev 14(1):41–61
Hatakeda T, Kokubu K, Kajiwara T, Nishitani K (2012) Factors influencing corporate environmental protection activities for greenhouse gas emission reductions: the relationship between environmental and financial performance. Environ Resour Econ 53(4):455–481
Healy PM, Palepu KG (2001) Information asymmetry, corporate disclosure, and the capital markets : A review of the empirical disclosure literature. J Account Econ 31:405–440
Johnston D (2005) An investigation of regulatory and voluntary environmental capital expenditures. J Account Public Policy 24(3):175–206
Kurnia P, Darlis E, Putra AA (2020) Carbon emission disclosure, good corporate governance, financial performance, and firm value. J Asian Financ Econ Bus 7:223–231
Luo L, Lan YC, Tang Q (2012) Corporate incentives to disclose carbon information: Evidence from the CDP Global 500 Report. J Int Financ Manag Account 23(2):93–120
Luo L, Tang Q, Lan Y (2013) Comparison of propensity for carbon disclosure between developing and developed countries. J Account Res 26:6–34
Matsumura EM, Prakash R, Vera-Muñoz SC (2014) Firm-value effects of carbon emissions and carbon disclosures. Account Rev 89(2):695–724
Milgrom PR (1981) Good news and bad news: representation theorems and applications. Bell J Econ 12(2):380–391
Perman R, Stern DI (2003) Evidence from panel unit root and cointegration tests that the Environmental Kuznets Curve does not exist. Aust J Agric Resour Econ 47(3):325–347
Plumlee M, Brown D, Hayes RM, Marshall RS (2015) Voluntary environmental disclosure quality and firm value: Further evidence. J Account Public Policy 34(4):336–361
Richmond AK, Kaufmann RK (2006) Is there a turning point in the relationship between income and energy use and/or carbon emissions? Ecol Econ 56(2):176–189
Sìmnett R, Vanstraelen A, Chua WF (2009) Assurance on sustainability reports: An international comparison. Account Rev 84(3):937–967
Soytas U, Sari R, Ewing BT (2007) Energy consumption, income, and carbon emissions in the United States. Ecol Econ 62(3-4):482–489
Stanny E, Ely K (2008) Corporate environmental disclosures about the effects of climate change. Corp Soc Responsib Environ Manag 15:338–348
Velte P, Stawinoga M, Lueg R (2020) Carbon performance and disclosure: A systematic review of governance-related determinants and financial consequences. J Clean Prod: 120063
Wang S, Wang H, Wang J, Yang F (2020) Does environmental information disclosure contribute to improve firm financial performance? An examination of the underlying mechanism. Sci Total Environ 714(96):136855
Yuan S., Pan X. (2022) Corporate carbon disclosure, financing structure, and total factor productivity : evidence from Chinese heavy polluting enterprises. Environ Sci Poll Res (0123456789)
Funding
The authors received funding from Shaanxi Education Department Key Research Base Project of Philosophy and Social Science (grant no. 19JZ047) and China Scholarship Council Fund (CSC: 201908610028).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Zhao-Yong Sun participated in its design and coordination and performed the statistical analysis. Shu-Ning Wang carried out draft the manuscript. Dongdong Li is in charge of visualization, investigation, writing—review and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable
Consent to participate
Not applicable
Consent for publication
Not applicable
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Arshian Sharif
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sun, ZY., Wang, SN. & Li, D. The impacts of carbon emissions and voluntary carbon disclosure on firm value. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 60189–60197 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20006-6
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20006-6