When climate speaks, who answers? Climate change exposure, environmental disclosure and CEO characteristics in Europe

Alzarah, Mohammed, Kourtis, Apostolos and Markellos, Raphael (2026) When climate speaks, who answers? Climate change exposure, environmental disclosure and CEO characteristics in Europe. Economics Letters, 258. ISSN 0165-1765

Preview

PDF (Kourtis_etal_When_climate_speaks_who_answers_2025_EL_Final) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (4MB) | Preview

Abstract

We study whether firm-specific climate change exposure affects environmental disclosure and how CEO traits influence this relationship. Using data from STOXX Europe 600 firms, we find that higher climate risk leads to higher-quality disclosure. A one-standard-deviation increase in climate change exposure is associated with up to a 28% increase in the disclosure score, relative to the sample average. This effect is stronger for firms with longer-tenured or younger CEOs. Our findings highlight that firm-level climate risk and CEO experience drive environmental transparency, even under Europe’s rigid reporting standards.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Data availability Climate change exposure scores are openly available from the OSF repository. The remaining data are available from Bloomberg and LSEG.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	climate change exposure,environmental disclosure,ceo characteristics,sdg 13 - climate action ,/dk/atira/pure/sustainabledevelopmentgoals/climate_action
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Norwich Business School
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Groups > Finance Group Faculty of Social Sciences > Research Centres > Centre for Competition Policy
Depositing User:	LivePure Connector
Date Deposited:	09 Dec 2025 14:30
Last Modified:	15 Dec 2025 01:19
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/101349
DOI:	10.1016/j.econlet.2025.112753

Downloads

Actions (login required)

View Item