Nursing

Quality of Life Research

Composite number

Ecology

Biology

Public health

Environmental economics

Materials science

Public relations

Accounting

Economics

Carbon fibers

Business

Corporate governance

Greenhouse gas

Climate change

Business ethics

Political science

Composite material

Voluntary disclosure

Medicine

Finance

Natural resource economics

Stakeholder

Accountability

Climate governance

Organisation climate

Journal of Business Ethics

We explore corporate environmental accountability by examining how carbon emissions affect voluntary climate-related information disclosure based on TCFD principles. Using computerized textual analysis to measure such climate-related disclosure, our results show that firms with higher levels of carbon emissions disclose more climate-related information. This relation is stronger in firms belonging to carbon-intensive industries, such as energy, materials, and utilities. We also examine this relationship at the category level for Governance, Strategy, Risk Management, and Metrics and Targets, finding that carbon emissions drive disclosure in all categories except in Governance. Overall, our findings indicate that high carbon emitting firms appear to discharge their corporate accountability by increasing climate-related disclosure, consistent with legitimizing their potentially unethical actions and submitting to stakeholder and societal pressure.

Carbon Emissions and TCFD Aligned Climate-Related Information Disclosures