Exploring the current status and key determinants of corporate disclosure on climate change: Evidence from the Greek business sector

Abstract

An increasing number of large corporations around the world engage in accounting for and reporting on their plans and measures towards climate change mitigation, as part of their environmental responsibility agenda. Using a disclosure index, this study contributes to the discussion of enhancing climate change corporate disclosures and informs the limited research assessing such information provision by companies operating in countries of the Southeastern European region. It explores the status of the disclosure practices of the largest 100 firms operating in Greece with respect to the pivotal issue of climate change mitigation and sheds light on determinants that drive domestic companies to publicly disclose such information. The analysis suggests that only a small group of leading Greek companies appears to endorse a climate change discourse as an instrument of empowering stakeholders’ decision-making. Relying on ordered logit regression specifications, we find that subscription to externally-developed voluntary initiatives, international presence well as operating in environmentally sensitive sectors, are significant variables that positively affect climate change disclosure. In contrast, size has a positive yet negligible effect while sector, profitability and type of ownership seem to have no significant influence.