A Study On The Impact Of The Quality Of Environmental Information Disclosure On The Financial Performance Of Companies Listed In The Mining Industry

The heavy industrial structure,the coal-based energy structure and the inefficient use of energy have posed a major obstacle to China’s green development.The mining industry is characterized by strong negative externalities of high consumption and high pollution,and the state mandates heavily polluting industries such as mining industry to disclose their environmental information.Even in such an external environment,the environmental information disclosure of the mining industry still has problems such as low overall disclosure quality and serious differences,lack of standardized disclosure methods,and large proportion of non-financial information disclosure.Under the profit-seeking nature of enterprises,in order to make them aware of the importance of actively fulfilling environmental obligations and improve their awareness of environmental information disclosure,the relationship between the quality of environmental information disclosure of mining industry and enterprise financial performance should first be clarified.As the environmental disclosure system in China is not yet sound,executives will,to a certain extent,influence the actual content and form of environmental disclosure of listed mining companies,while the financial performance and long-term development of the company are also closely related to the executives.Therefore,the executive compensation incentive mechanism may play a certain role in regulating the relationship between the quality of environmental information disclosure and the financial results of mining enterprises.Based on the data of Chinese A-share mining listed companies from 2010 to 2019,this paper splits environmental information into two categories,environmental financial information and environmental non-financial information,and uses this to construct a scoring framework for environmental information disclosure.Selecting the return on net assets as an indicator to measure financial performance,the relationship between environmental information disclosure and financial performance of mining companies was empirically studied by content analysis method and multiple linear regression method,and the role of corporate executive compensation in regulating the two is explored.The results show that,firstly,the quality of environmental information disclosure is negatively related to financial performance of mining companies.The second is that disclosure of environmental non-financial information by mining companies has a more significant impact on financial performance than environmental financial information.Thirdly,based on the confirmation that the quality of environmental information disclosure has a negative effect on the financial performance of the mining industry,executive compensation positively moderates the relationship between the two,executive compensation can significantly weaken the negative effect of the quality of environmental information disclosure on the financial performance of mining enterprises.Finally,the positive moderating effect of executive compensation in the relationship between the quality of environmental information disclosure and the financial performance of mining enterprises is more pronounced in firms located in more market-oriented regions.Further research shows that the disclosure of environmental information related to incentives can improve the financial performance of enterprises.Therefore,it is recommended that the government should formulate specific environmental information disclosure rules for different industries,establish a unified environmental information disclosure platform,and increase rewards and penalties for environmental information.Companies should design a reasonable internal assessment system for executive remuneration,strengthen the promotion of environmental protection policies and enhance their own awareness of environmental information disclosure.This provides practical ideas to improve the quality of environmental information disclosure by mining enterprises and to carry out specific environmental information disclosure in accordance with laws and regulations,and is also beneficial to enterprises seeking long-term development.