An empirical study on carbon disclosure practices and strategies in emerging market

Abstract

Increasing awareness of environmental sustainability, investor demands, and legal frameworks have made carbon reporting essential for businesses worldwide, including Indian corporations (Huang et al., 2023). The paper explores the disclosed accounting practices of Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) by Indian firms in their annual reports. It is based on the secondary data collected from annual reports of NSE- or BSE-listed firms that made carbon credit announcements from 2005–2022. By using content analysis, this study examines the recognition, measurement, and disclosure practices of carbon rights received by Indian firms, hosted by Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) projects of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The study found that there is huge diversity in disclosure practices of CERs and no consistency in reporting the CERs in annual reports. More specifically, most companies did not even disclose full information about the treatment of CERs. The Indian government might utilize this study as a foundation for developing policies since improved carbon accounting disclosures and laws are required to safeguard stakeholders’ and investors’ interests.