Corporate environmental reporting: Are French firms compliant with the Task Force on Climate Financial Disclosures' recommendations?

Abstract

AbstractThis article deals with the practices of French corporate environmental disclosure with a focus on climate‐related risks. In particular, it aims to analyse the compliance of CAC 40 firms with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate‐related Financial Disclosures (2017), an international initiative made up by Financial Stability Board to enhance financial transparency. On the basis of a content analysis of firms' reference documents spanning 2015–2018, we constructed the Climate Compliance Index (CCI) to evaluate whether firms disclose information on climate risks and opportunities about governance, strategy, risk management and metrics. Our results highlight a gradual increase of the CCI despite disparities across sectors and management areas. The content analysis allows us to develop a set of indicators frequently reported by domain and to identify and define climate risks and opportunities and their financial impacts per sector, which is a first step to improve the disclosure of non‐financial information.