CSR activity in response to the Paris Agreement exit

Abstract

In 2017, U.S. President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement. Although there were concerns that the exit would impede the global effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the environmental performance of U.S. firms in carbon‐intensive sectors improved after the announcement at a significantly higher pace than firms in other sectors. Moreover, our findings are concentrated among firms exposed to higher public attention. One implication is that firms under greater public scrutiny used the United States' departure from the agreement as an opportunity to credibly signal their commitment to combating global climate change.

Corporate Governance and CSR Disclosure: International Evidence for the Period 2006–2016

“…The sample period ends by 2016 to exclude any direct or indirect impact of the American elections and the entry of D. Trump to the office in 2017, which may affect the research findings. Relevant literature (e.g., Klaus et al 2022;Antonini et al 2021;Weldon 2017) shows that the political transition in the USA after 2016 could possibly influence CG and CSR disclosure practices. In fact, companies and investors benefited from a stock market perk up in the weeks following the 2016 United States presidential election, empowered by expectations of tax cuts, increased government spending, and significant deregulation, which possibly could affect (positively or negatively) the quality and quantity of their disclosures.…”

Framing the path to net zero

“…While there is work investigating whether corporations are abiding by the Paris Agreement goals (e.g. Dietz et al, 2018;Klaus et al, 2023), the question of how this landmark deal has influenced corporate discourse on carbon emissions and climate change remains unexplored. We argue that studying how heavy emitters' discourse has evolved following the Paris Agreement is critical to understanding whether these companies are aligning their language, strategic vision and values with the ambitious yet imperative goals of the agreement.…”

Can ESG activities stabilise IPO prices? Evidence from the Hong Kong stock market

“…Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance refers to the various activities companies conduct to improve overall stakeholder wealth, such as reducing carbon emissions (Garzón‐Jiménez & Zorio‐Grima, 2021; Klaus et al, 2022), promoting gender equality (Cho et al, 2021) and adopting anticorruption practices (Galbreath, 2013). Studies are increasingly recording ESG engagements initiated by companies.…”