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Purpose -This paper aims to explore the disclosure of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by megacities.Three dimensions were considered. First, what communication channels are used by world megacities to disclose their emissions reduction target (ERT) and emissions reduction actions (ERA)? Second, the consistency of disclosed ERT and ERA across different channels. Third, the quality of the disclosed ERA in different channels.Design/methodology/approach -Ten megacities selected for review were in Australia, Europe, the USA, the UK and South Africa. First, ERT and ERA information was searched in different disclosure media to identify the common communication channels used by the megacities. Second, the documentary analysis was undertaken to assess the consistency of reported ERT and ERA information across the identified channels. Third, a scoring system was developed and applied to evaluate the quality of the disclosed ERA information, based on the extent to which megacities provided descriptions of emission reduction actions and reported the impact of the actions and the cost to implement them.Findings -Megacities primarily used third-party channels and their channels to disclose ERT-and ERArelated information. Social media use to provide climate change information is also growing. The study also finds that ERT information is consistent between third-party channels and megacities' channels. However, around half of the disclosed ERA between third-party and megacities' channels are not consistent. Quality assessment for the disclosed ERA in different channels shows that megacities have provided limited information regarding the impacts and the cost of their ERA, which raises a question about the usefulness of disclosure.Research limitations/implications -The findings are important for policymakers and city officials designing cities' GHG reporting standards and developing policies for programs to reduce emissions. Also, for stakeholders' understanding of cities' commitment and actions to reduce emissions, as well as the impact of their actions, and for managers responsible for measuring, reporting and mitigating emissions from current and future actions.Originality/value -Prior studies primarily focused on corporate greenhouse emissions disclosure to the carbon disclosure project, whereas this paper examines emissions disclosure at the geographic level. Moreover, prior studies of the public sector focused on the scope of climate change disclosure but did not evaluate the consistency and quality of the disclosure. However, this study explores three different disclosure

The significant amount of research related to corporate social disclosure (CSD) over the last few decades indicates its importance. Prior studies have revealed continuous improvement in the level of CSD by corporations in different sectors. The recent economic and financial crisis has been identified by many economic and financial experts as the worst since the Second World War and is likely to have an impact on level of CSD. This study examines the extent of CSD before and during global financial crisis for 48 selected Australian companies. The results of the study reveal that there is an insignificant upward change in CSD during the financial crisis. In addition, this study examines the association between several firm level factors (profitability, leverage, change in profitability, change in leverage and size) and the extent of CSD and change in CSD. The study finds that the extent of CSD is not significantly associated with leverage and profitability but it is significantly associated with size. Additionally, change in profitability and size do not have any significant influence on change in CSD. However, change in leverage has a significant negative association with change in CSD.

Purpose -Cities are crucial to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This paper aims to explore the quality of GHG disclosures by cities via the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and compares them with the expectations of users.Design/methodology/approach -The expectation gap framework is used to examine the GHG disclosure quality of 42 cities. User expectations are determined via a literature review and CDP documentation. City disclosures are reviewed using content analysis.Findings -GHG information at the city level is outdated, incomplete, inconsistent, inaccurate and incomparable and, therefore, to meet user expectations, improvement is needed.Research limitations/implications -The findings have implications for policymakers, stakeholders and managers. Guidelines are required for better disclosure of GHG information relating to cities, and stakeholders need to develop better skills to understand emissions information. Managers have a responsibility to measure, disclose and mitigate GHG emissions to meet the expectations of stakeholders.Originality/value -Prior studies focus on GHG disclosures via the CDP by corporations. This is the first accounting study to examine GHG disclosures by cities via the CDP. The expectation gap framework is a novel approach to sustainability disclosure research.

This paper examines the effect of two Australian environmental regulatory changes, specifically the Clean Energy Act (CEA) 2011 and the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting (NGER) Act 2007 with reference to voluntary corporate carbon disclosure practices. In doing so, it describes the brief history of this carbon-related regulatory change, its scope, enforcement criteria and corporations’ disclosures. This is a longitudinal analysis of 219 annual reports of 73 listed corporations in Australia which were subjected to carbon tax and report carbon emissions as per the CEA 2011 and NGER Act 2007 accordingly. Any corporation or facility that emitted scope 1 emissions of 25,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2-e) or more were liable for a carbon tax in accordance with CEA 2011. Drawing on stakeholder theory and legitimacy theory, this study uses content analysis to examine corporate carbon disclosure. The findings suggest there is a considerable increase in the number of carbon-related disclosures following these regulations being enacted as law. In addition, carbon-specific communication has become much more prevalent and accounts for a larger proportion of the sampled organisations’ reported environmental information. The results of this study enrich the validity of the hypothesis that organisations would seek to legitimise their operations to stakeholders by increasing their environment-related declarations. The evidence presented in the analysis confirms the assertion that government environmental legislation/regulation has a positive impact on corporate behaviour and accountability. These findings have significant consequences for the government, decision-makers and the accounting profession, indicating that regulatory guidance enhances both mandatory and voluntary disclosure. It also offers key insights into the possible impacts of the carbon regulatory change for future research to consider.