Overview of research on carbon information disclosure

Abstract

Against the background of addressing global climate change and carbon emission reduction, corporate carbon information disclosure (CID) has become an important measure to achieve carbon emission reduction worldwide and a research hotspot closely investigated by the academia. This study provides a systematic overview of literature on CID, including its research trend, theoretical basis, disclosing features, influencing factors, and consequences. Results indicate that, first, CID has been increasing in recent years, but the content and quality of the disclosure still need to be improved. Second, the main influencing factors of CID include company features, corporate governance, environmental performance, institutional characteristics, and stakeholders. Third, the consequences of CID are based mainly on company performance, ecological environment, and investors’ decision-making. Lastly, most studies have confirmed the positive effect of CID on company performance and investors’ decision-making, but the nexus of environmental performance and corporate CID remains to be investigated. Several important future research directions are also proposed based on these results.

Keywords

climate change / carbon emissions reduction / carbon information disclosure / green development

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