The business and environmental impacts of the Canadian Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program

This research investigates the impact of Canada's mandatory greenhouse gas reporting program on firms' share price and future environmental performance. First, we examine whether stock market prices are affected by investors' response to publicly disclosed greenhouse gas (GHG) information. Second, we test whether abnormal stock price changes lead to lower GHG emissions. We find that investors punish firms whose emissions intensity increased but their losses are mitigated with previous voluntary GHG reporting. Observed improvements in environmental performance were small and limited to the dirtiest firms. These findings imply a narrow scope for information provision as a GHG mitigation policy tool.