Corporate environmental disclosure in Europe: the effects of the regulatory environment
Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting
ISSN: 1985-2517
Article publication date: 11 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to assess the impact of regulatory changes on corporate environmental disclosure practices in Europe. More specifically, the authors perform a difference-in-differences analysis to study the impact of the Paris agreement (United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP21) and of the French Law 2015-992 on energy transition for green growth.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample consists of the listed companies belonging to the Euro Stoxx 50 index, and they are analysed over the 2010–2019 time horizon by means of an expert validated environmental disclosure dictionary and difference-in-differences analysis.
Findings
The main results show that both regulatory interventions contributed to improving corporate environmental disclosure. The authors also show that firms belonging to the most polluting sectors tend to provide more information on environmental matters, likely in an attempt to divert stakeholders’ attention.
Originality/value
By analysing an under-investigated topic, the paper calls for significant efforts by regulators to find the most suitable solutions to induce firms to increase their levels of transparency on the impact of environmental risks and on how these risks are managed.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Aziz Jaafar, Alessio Reghezza and Maria Cristina Taormina for their comments on a previous version of this paper. All errors are the responsibility of the authors.
Funding: Co-funded by Fondazione Angelo e Salvatore Lima Mancuso, research project “La Disclosure dei Rischi Ambientali nell’Economia e Gestione Aziendale” and by the European Union – Next Generation EU – Project GRINS – PE0000018, PNRR Mission 4, C2 Intervention 1.3, CUP H73C22000930001.
Erratum: It has come to the attention of the publisher that the article, Salvatore Polizzi and Enzo Scannella “Corporate environmental disclosure in Europe: the effects of the regulatory environment”, published in Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting was published with misleading Acknowldegements and incomplete Funding information. The correct closing Acknowledgements statement is ‘All errors are the responsibility of the authors’. The correct Funding information is ‘Funding: Co-funded by Fondazione Angelo e Salvatore Lima Mancuso, research project “La Disclosure dei Rischi Ambientali nell’Economia e Gestione Aziendale” and by the European Union – Next Generation EU – Project GRINS – PE0000018, PNRR Mission 4, C2 Intervention 1.3, CUP H73C22000930001”. These errors were introduced in the editorial process and have now been corrected in the online version. The publisher sincerely apologises for these errors and for any inconvenience caused.
Citation
Polizzi, S. and Scannella, E. (2023), "Corporate environmental disclosure in Europe: the effects of the regulatory environment", Journal of Financial Reporting and Accounting, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JFRA-03-2023-0165
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited