How does environmental information disclosure affect carbon emissions? Evidence from China

Abstract

In the context of global carbon peak and carbon neutrality, the issue of how to effectively encourage enterprises to reduce their carbon emissions has drawn the attention of governments and scholars. This paper uses the difference-in-differences method and joint data (2003-2012) from Chinese industrial firm pollution database and Chinese industrial firm database to evaluate the impacts of environmental information disclosure on enterprises' carbon emissions. We find that environmental information disclosure has a significant effect on enterprises' carbon emission reduction. Moderating effect analysis finds that environmental regulations and punishment strengthen the role of environmental information disclosure in reducing carbon emissions, however, the moderating role of environmental punishment is limited. In addition, mechanism analysis show that environmental information disclosure can reduce carbon emissions by improving their energy structures and encouraging polluting enterprises to withdraw from the market.

Keywords: Carbon emissions; Environmental information disclosure; Environmental regulation; Mechanism analysis; Moderating effect.