Carbon Regulation,Voluntary Carbon Disclosure And Corporate Value

The issue of global warming and climate change has become a topic of conversation in recent years.Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the main causes of climate warming,and they are getting more and more attention.The focus of academic research in recent years is also on carbon disclosure.Due to the existence of carbon regulation,there are two types of carbon disclosure methods for companies: voluntary disclosure and mandatory disclosure.Carbon Disclosure Project(CDP)-established in London in 2009-provides a platform for companies all over the world to disclose carbon information voluntarily.However,in terms of mandatory disclosure,only the United Kingdom and the United States have promulgated and implemented a carbon mandatory act.These two developed countries in the world requiring all listed companies in their stock market to disclose carbon information in their annual reports.Does carbon mandatory affect voluntary disclosure? And carbon mandatory in turn affects corporate value? Is it necessary to implement carbon regulation laws at the national level? These are the problems that this article hopes to find out.This article is based on the introduction of The Companies Act 2006(Strategic Report and Directors' Report)Regulations 2013.This article selects LSE companies in UK and EU companies as experimental samples.And using propensity score matching method to obtain experimental group and control group.Subsequently,we examined the impact of carbon regulation on voluntary carbon disclosure using difference-in-differences method and multiple linear regressions.Consistent with the theory of legality,this article find out that companies are more likely to voluntarily disclose carbon information after the promulgation and implementation of the carbon regulation act.We also find out the level of voluntary carbon information disclosure of the company has also improved after the implementation of the regulatory act.What's more,the paper also finds out that carbon regulation can significantly promote the value relevance of voluntary carbon disclosures.Most of the former researchers' studies focused on the value relevance of carbon disclosure and the market effect of the carbon regulation act.Only a few articles have examined the relationship between carbon regulation and the level of carbon disclosure.However,they have never studied whether carbon regulation will promote the value relevance of carbon disclosure.This article has been deepened to some extent on the basis of the former researchers' studies.In addition,this paper innovatively uses the propensity score match and difference-in-differences method to study the impact of carbon regulation on voluntary disclosure.According to the results,we give some relevant policies and recommendations.China should learn from the practices of developed countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States.China should promulgate and implement carbon regulations at the national level,and establish a sound legal mechanism for carbon disclosure.