Establishment of Corporate Energy Management Systems and Voluntary Carbon Information Disclosure in Chinese Listed Companies: The Moderating Role of Corporate Leaders’ Low-Carbon Awareness

Erli Dan,Jianfei Shen

doi:10.3390/su14052714

Abstract

The “Energy-Saving and Low-Carbon Action Implementation Plan for Ten Thousand Enterprises” urged Chinese energy users to establish an energy management system (EEM) that emphasizes energy conservation and emission reduction. This study applied the voluntary information disclosure theory, stakeholder theory, and legitimacy theory to construct a research framework for corporate voluntary carbon information disclosure (CID) under combined action of disclosure decision, EEM related to carbon information collection, and pressure to disclose. This study uses A-share listed companies from 2009 to 2017 as its research sample. Panel data regression analyses show that EEM positively affects CID in the high-carbon industry, and LLA positively affects CID in the low-carbon industry. In addition, ownership concentration has significant effects on CID. Moreover, the existence of state-owned shares positively affects CID of AH-share samples. The moderating effect test found that LLA has a negative moderating effect (a positive moderating effect) on the relationship between EEM and CID in the high-carbon industry (in AH-share samples). This study has verified the promoting effect of energy policies implementation related to carbon reduction and leaders’ carbon awareness on CID. It provided a strong basis for the significance of accelerating climate-change policies and promotion effects of international capital markets.

Highlights

Published: 25 February 2022After the “Paris Agreement”, countries and regions have made plans for carbon emission reduction
Based on stakeholder theory, combining the positive effects of corporate environmental performance, innovation, and carbon information disclosure, we propose that the negative effect of ownership concentration on carbon information disclosure may not be significant
Using Equations (3) and (4), we examine the moderating effect of leaders’ lowcarbon awareness on the relationship between energy management systems and voluntary carbon information disclosure

Summary

Introduction

After the “Paris Agreement”, countries and regions have made plans for carbon emission reduction. If the 1.5-degree temperature control target is to be achieved, global carbon emissions need to be reduced by 7.6% per year between 2020 and 2030 [7]. The annual carbon emission per unit of GDP needs to decline faster (by 2030, 60–65% reduction compared with 2005), which means that China will have to make greater efforts [9]. The Non-Financial Reporting Directive issued by the European Union in October 2014 is the first legal document to systematically include the three elements of ESG in regulations and regulations, raising great attention to the disclosure of non-financial information and performance of listed companies. Germany and Italy issued mandatory ESG envelope

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Conclusion