Afinal, vale a pena divulgar emissões de carbono no Brasil?

Abstract

This research seeks to investigate the relationship between carbon emission disclosure and the cost of capital of Brazilian publicly traded companies in the period from 2012 to 2017. So far, in Brazil, there is no empirical evidence to prove the relevance of such voluntary disclosure for the capital market, as well as the impacts that result in a reduction in the cost of capital. This research aims to fill this gap from the perspective of the signaling theory. The analysis was conducted with 27 publicly traded Brazilian companies listed on B3. Two voluntary disclosure measures were used: the disclosure of GHG emissions inventories and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) questionnaires capable of influencing the firms' weighted average cost of capital (WACC). The research hypotheses were verified by means of multiple regression with panel data. The results found contribute to the literature by providing evidence of the benefits of disclosing information about climate change on the cost of capital of Brazilian firms. It was identified that polluting companies have a lower cost of capital and, even under reputational risk, the advantages of disclosure still prevail. Moreover, they provide subsidies to regulatory policies on disclosure, management and carbon emissions of Brazilian companies