Determination climate-related information reporting on the example of selected Polish listed companies

Abstract

PURPOSE: This article aims to assess the scope of climate-related non-financial information disclosed in reports published by selected Polish listed companies. To that end, a research hypothesis was formulated as follows: lack of mandatory regulations on notifying stakeholders of the climate-related impacts of a given enterprise limits the scope of the disclosures.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: The following research methods were applied in this study, literature review, analysis of legal regulations, in-depth analysis of secondary data in the form of non-financial reports. Also, induction and synthesis methods were applied in formulating the conclusions. For the empirical study, 10 top Polish listed companies (the biggest in terms of market capitalization, included in the WIG-20 index) were selected on a targeted basis. The study covered non-financial reports for 2019. The research consisted of two phases: in the 1st phase, descriptive information was evaluated, whereas the 2nd phase focused on analyzing disclosures of quantitative nature in the form of non-financial indicators.

FINDINGS: The analysis of the non-financial reports of the selected Polish companies confirmed that the scope of disclosed climate-related information was small, mainly since the disclosures were voluntary (positive verification of the hypothesis). Both the descriptive part of the disclosures and the one expressed in the form of indicators confirmed that the nonfinancial reports were not a sufficient tool for stakeholders to obtain information on the impact of the business operations on the climate.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: The research study has confirmed the need to intensify legislative works to develop a catalog of required, structured, comparable, and reliable climate-related disclosures.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The article supplements the existing body of research related to nonfinancial reporting by identifying the research gap about climate-related disclosures in Poland after 2019.