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Coordinating low-carbonization and digitalization is a practical implementation pathway to achieve high-quality economic development. Regions are under great emission reduction pressure to achieve low-carbon development. However, why and how regional emission reduction pressure influences enterprise digital transformation is lacking in the literature. This study empirically tests the impact of emission reduction pressure on enterprise digital transformation and its mechanism.

This article takes the data of non-financial listed companies from 2011 to 2020 as a sample. The digital transformation index is measured by entropy value method. The bidirectional fixed effect model was used to test the hypothesis.

The research results show that emission reduction pressure forces enterprise digital transformation. The mechanism lies in that emission reduction pressure improves digital transformation by promoting enterprise innovation, and digital economy moderates the nexus between emission reduction pressure and digital transformation. Furthermore, the effect of emission reduction pressure on digital transformation is more significant for non-state-owned, mature and high-tech enterprises.

This paper discusses the mediating role of enterprise innovation between carbon emission reduction pressure and enterprise digital transformation, as well as the moderating role of digital economy. The research expands the body of knowledge about dual carbon targets, digitization and technological innovation. The author’s findings help update the impact of regional digital economy development on enterprise digital transformation. It also provides theoretical guidance for the realization of digital transformation by enterprise innovation.

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between carbon emissions and earnings management (EM). This study also considers the effect of female CEOs on the association between carbon emissions and EM.

This study uses the carbon disclosure project (CDP) for carbon emissions data, the Compustat database for financial information and the ExecuComp database for female CEOs. The empirical sample of this study consists of 1,692 firm-year observations in the USA that voluntarily participated in the CDP survey from 2007 to 2015. Regression analysis and robustness tests are conducted for this study and both accrual and real EM are considered.

This study provides evidence that firms with female CEOs who voluntarily disclose their carbon emissions information engage in less real EM. Thus, the presence of female CEOs moderates the association between carbon emissions and EM. This study/paper also finds a positive association between carbon emissions and real EM, although there is an insignificant association between carbon emissions and accruals EM.

The association between carbon emissions and EM has important implications for investors, regulators and policymakers. This study suggests that policymakers should improve the conditions that promote inclusion of females in the top management positions to constrain EM.

This study focuses on the USA, which is one of the major contributors to carbon emissions in the world. The presence of female CEOs moderates the association between carbon emissions and EM and firms with female CEOs show a greater impact on EM.

This study aims to undertake a review of how carbon trading contributes to a reduction in emission of greenhouse gases (CHGs).

A narrative literature review approach was adopted to identify and synthesise existing literature using the Scopus and Web of Science databases. Articles were limited to the past 10 years to obtain the most current literature. The various ways in which carbon trading leads to reductions in emissions were identified and discussed.

The results showed that the main ways in which carbon trading contributes to reductions in emissions are through innovation in low-carbon technologies, restoration of ecosystems through offset money, development of renewable and clean energy and providing information on investment related to emissions.

The value of this study is to contribute to the built environment’s climate change mitigation agenda by identifying the role of carbon trading.

The output of this research identifies and contextualises the role carbon trading plays in the reduction of CHG emissions.

This paper aims to analyze the role and advantages of knowledge resources in the carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain, and how it can be used to promote the carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain, so that the industry can better achieve the saving of energy and the reduction of emission.

This paper argues that the traditional resource-plundering industrial chain production method can no longer meet the needs of sustainable development of the green and low-carbon industrial chain, and builds the coupling and coordination of knowledge technology innovation drive and industrial chain carbon emission reduction mechanism, in the four dimensions of industrial chain organization, government support, internet support and staff brainstorming, put forward suggestions for knowledge resources to drive carbon emission reduction in the industrial chain.

This paper holds that the use of knowledge resource advantages can better help industrial chain enterprises to carry out technological innovation, knowledge resource digital platform construction, knowledge resource overflow and transfer, application and management of network information technology, so as to reduce carbon emission in industrial chain.

This paper contributes to the discussion about the high-quality implementation of the revitalization strategy of the industrial chain and also deepens research on the knowledge resource-driven carbon emission reduction of the industrial chain. Further, this paper enriches the role of knowledge resources in the industrial industry, and the theoretical results support the advantages of knowledge resource in the field of chain carbon emission reduction.

The coal-fired power plants have been confronted with new operation challenge since the unified carbon trading market was launched in China. To make the optimal decision for the carbon emissions and power production has already been an important subject for the plants. Most of the previous studies only considered the market prices of electricity and coal to optimize the generation plan. However, with the opening of the carbon trading market, carbon emission has become a restrictive factor for power generation. By introducing the carbon-reduction target in the production decision, this study aims to achieve both the environmental and economic benefits for the coal-fired power plants to positively deal with the operational pressure.

A dynamic optimization approach with both long- and short-term decisions was proposed in this study to control the carbon emissions and power production. First, the operation rules of carbon, electricity and coal markets are analyzed, and a two-step decision-making algorithm for annual and weekly production is presented. Second, a production profit model based on engineering constraints is established, and a greedy heuristics algorithm is applied in the Gurobi solver to obtain the amounts of weekly carbon emission, power generation and coal purchasing. Finally, an example analysis is carried out with five generators of a coal-fired power plant for illustration.

The results show that the joint information of the multiple markets of carbon, electricity and coal determines the real profitability of power production, which can assist the plants to optimize their production and increase the profits. The case analyses demonstrate that the carbon emission is reduced by 2.89% according to the authors’ method, while the annual profit is improved by 1.55%.

As an important power producer and high carbon emitter, coal-fired power plants should actively participate in the carbon market. Rather than trade blindly at the end of the agreement period, they should deeply associate the prices of carbon, electricity and coal together and realize optimal management of carbon emission and production decision efficiently.

This paper offers an effective method for the coal-fired power plant, which is struggling to survive, to manage its carbon emission and power production optimally.

This study investigates the association between debt overhang and carbon emissions (both direct and indirect emissions) using a sample of US publicly listed firms.

The study applies generalized least squares (GLS) regression analyses to a sample of 2,043 US firm-year observations over a period of 14 years from 2007 to 2020. The methods include contemporaneous effect, lagged effect, alternative measures of carbon emissions and debt overhang, intensive versus non-intensive analysis, channel analysis, firm fixed effects, change analysis, controlling for credit rating analysis, propensity score matching approach, instrumental variable analysis with industry and year fixed effect.

This study's findings reveal that the debt overhang problem increases carbon emissions. This finding holds when the authors use alternative measures of carbon emissions and debt overhang. The authors find that carbon abatement investment is a channel that is negatively impacted by debt overhang, which in turn increases carbon emissions. This study's results are robust for several endogeneity tests, including firm fixed effects, change analysis, propensity score matching approach and two-stage least squares (2SLS) instrumental variable analysis.

The outcome of this research has policy implications for several stakeholders, including investors, firms, market participants and regulators. This study's findings offer insights for investors and firms, helping them allocate resources effectively and make financing decisions aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Regulators and policymakers can also use the findings to formulate policies that promote alternative sustainable finance practices.

The outcome of this research is likely to help firms develop their understanding of the debt overhang problem and undertake strategies that yield a significant amount of funding to invest in reducing carbon emissions.

This study aims to empirically examine the influence of financial constraints on firm carbon emissions. In addition to the role of financial constraints in firm-level carbon emissions, this study also examines this influence in the presence of governance, environmental orientation and firm-level attributes.

Using pooled ordinary least square, this study examines the impact of financial constraints on firm-level carbon emissions using a panel of 1,536 US firm-year observations from 2008 to 2019. This study also used two-step generalized method of moment–based dynamic panel data and two-stage least square approaches to address potential endogeneity. The results are robust to endogeneity and collinearity issues.

The results suggest that financial constraints enhance the carbon emissions of the firms. The economic significance of financial constraints on carbon emissions is more pronounced for the firms that do not report environment-related expenditure investment and those that are highly leveraged. The authors further document that firms with a nondiverse gender board signify a statistically significant impact of financial constraints on carbon emissions. These results are also economically significant, as one standard deviation increase in financial constraints is associated with a 3.340% increase in carbon emissions at the firm level.

Some implicit and explicit factors like corporate emissions policy and culture may condition the relationship of financial constraints with carbon emissions. Therefore, it would be worthwhile to consider these factors for future research. In addition, it is beneficial to identify the thresholds and/or quantiles at which financial constraints may significantly make a difference in enhancing carbon emissions.

The findings offer policy implications for investment in stakeholder engagement for capital acquisitions, thereby effectively enforcing environmental innovation and leading to a reduction in carbon emissions.

This study integrated governance and environment-oriented variables in the model to empirically examine the role of financial constraints on the carbon emissions of the firms in the USA over and above what has already been documented in the earlier literature.

To better understand the impact of choosing a carbon data provider for the estimated portfolio emissions across four asset classes. This is important, as prior literature has suggested that Environmental, Social and Governance scores across providers have low correlation.

The authors compare carbon data from four data providers for developed and emerging equity markets and investment grade and high-yield corporate bond markets.

Data on scope 1 and scope 2 is similar across the four data providers, but for scope 3 differences can be substantial. Carbon emissions data has become more consistent across providers over time.

The authors examine the impact of different carbon data providers at the asset class level. Portfolios that invest only in a subset of the asset class may be affected differently. Because “true” carbon emissions are not known, the authors cannot investigate which provider has the most accurate carbon data.

The impact of choosing a carbon data provider is limited for scope 1 and scope 2 data for equity markets. Differences are larger for corporate bonds and scope 3 emissions.

The authors compare carbon accounting metrics on scopes 1, 2 and 3 of corporate greenhouse gas emissions carbon data from multiple providers for developed and emerging equity and investment grade and high yield investment portfolios. Moreover, the authors show the impact of filling missing data points, which is especially relevant for corporate bond markets, where data coverage tends to be lower.

Climate change and carbon emissions are top of mind in all facets of society. This study aims to investigate what the world’s top brands are saying about carbon emissions and greenhouse gases (GHG). Through this inquiry, the authors hope to better understand what brands are saying, doing and if their actions are clear. Furthermore, the authors seek to uncover practices that may deter or enhance a brand’s effectiveness in communicating its current and future initiatives.

Each of the world’s top 50 brands’ (Forbes, 2020 Rankings) websites were assessed using a content analysis methodology. Key constructs and themes were identified first through a broad assessment, leading to a set of parameters (content items) that were used to assess each brand’s website. The results were then summarized.

Almost all of the world’s Top 50 brands attempt to articulate their current accomplishments and goals relative to carbon emissions and GHG. Generally, carbon falls under a broader discussion of their sustainability initiatives and objectives. While extensive, information on carbon emissions possesses a variety of terms for measures and initiatives, goal setting and actions. Stakeholders may find the information to be ambiguous and of limited use.

There are few, if any, assessments of how major brands communicate their current and future carbon emissions initiatives. The study uncovers tendencies and provides managers with practices that may enhance the effectiveness of their brand’s carbon emissions communications.

The growth of the Indian economy is accompanied by the rising trend of energy utilisation and its devastating effect on the environment. It is vital to understand the nexus between energy utilisation, climate and environment degradation and growth to devise a constructive policy framework for achieving the goal of sustainable growth. This study aims to analyse the long- and short-run association and direction of association between energy utilisation, carbon emission and growth of the Indian economy in the presence of structural break.

The study probes the association and direction of association between variables at both aggregate (total energy utilisation, total carbon emission and gross domestic product [GDP]) and disaggregates level (coal utilisation and coal emission, oil utilisation and oil emission, natural gas utilisation and natural gas emission along with GDP) over the time period of 50 years, i.e. 1971–2020. Autoregressive distributed lag model is used to examine the association between the variables and presence of structural break is confirmed with the help of Zivot–Andrews unit root test. To check the direction of association, vector error correction model Granger causality is performed.

Aggregate carbon emissions are affected positively by aggregate energy consumption and GDP in both short and long run. Bidirectional causality exists between total emissions and GDP, whereas a unidirectional causality runs from energy consumption towards carbon emission and GDP in the long run. At disaggregate level, consumption of coal energy impacts positively, whereas GDP influences coal emission negatively in the long run only. Furthermore, consumption of oil and GDP influences oil emissions positively in the long run. Lastly, natural gas is the energy source that has the fewest emissions in both short and long run.

There is a rapidly growing body of research on the connections and cause-and-effect relationships between energy use, economic growth and carbon emissions, but it has not conclusively proved how important the presence of structural breaks or changes within the economy is in shaping the outcomes of the aforementioned variables, especially when focusing on the Indian economy. By including the impact of structural break on the association between energy use, carbon emission and growth, where energy use and carbon emission are evaluated at both aggregate and disaggregate level, the current study aims to fill this gap in Indian literature.