Title：Mandatory GHG Disclosure and Corporate GHG Emissions

Speaker: Le Luo, Associate Professor, Macquarie University

Time：10:00-11:30, June 18th, 2026 (Thursday)

Venue：Room 712, Mingde Business Building (Zhongguancun Campus)

Language：Chinese & English

ABSTRACT:

Using a hand-collected dataset of mandatory greenhouse gas (GHG) disclosure regulations across 45 countries from 2002 to 2023, this study examines whether disclosure mandates reduce corporate GHG emissions. Employing a staggered difference-in-differences design, we find that mandatory GHG disclosure leads to a 7.23% reduction in emission intensity. We further investigate how regulatory design features and institutional factors shape disclosure effectiveness. Our results indicate that disclosure mandates are more effective when issued by governments, structured as mandatory requirements rather than “comply-or-explain” regimes, specifying explicit disclosure scopes, focusing specifically on GHG emissions, and targeting specific sectors. We also find that both formal and informal institutions moderate the effectiveness of mandatory disclosure. Further analyses reveal that mandatory disclosure reduces emissions through transparency and internal management channels, and that the emission reductions are robust to the absence of third-party verification and extend to Scope 3 emissions, suggesting genuine environmental improvements rather than carbon outsourcing.