Climate change disclosures: An examination of Canadian oil and gas firms

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine: (1) to what extent Canadian oil and gas firms haveadhered to the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountant proposed guidelines respecting climatechange disclosures in their annual reports, and (2) whether the disclosures of these firmscan be influenced by their media visibility, the presence and operating characteristics of an environmentalcommittee within the board of directors, their ownership structure, their auditfirms, their political exposure and media visibility. The results show that the level of disclosureis very low; however, when the board of directors has an environment committee, the level ofdisclosure is higher. This is also the case for firms having significant political exposure andstrong media visibility, and for those with a widely held ownership structure. Whether or notthe audit firm is one of the Big Four, does not make any difference in the level of disclosure. Copyright © www.iiste.org