An exploration of corporate climate change-related governance practices and related disclosures: Evidence from Australia

This paper investigates climate change-related corporate governance and related disclosure practices of five major energy-intensive companies in Australia over a 16 year period (from 1992 to 2007). More particularly, we are focusing on the disclosures that provide information about the policies and procedures the organisations have in place for addressing various issues associated with climate change. This study has employed a content analysis research method to investigate disclosures within annual reports and standalone environmental or sustainability reports. A disclosure category has been developed to classify climate change-related governance disclosures provided by the respective companies. Our findings from the paper suggest an increasing trend in companies' climate changerelated disclosure performances over time.