CARBON ACCOUNTING AND PERFORMANCE OF EMERGING FIRMS IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The growing problems of climate change and global warming pose a threat to the future of the earth. Many stakeholder organizations are voicing concerns about these problems and offering a variety of solutions. Governments are particularly being urged by environmental organizations to pass legislation controlling greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and to lead the charge in creating policies to reduce carbon emissions. Thus, it is now crucial for businesses to safeguard their brand by developing proactive plans for environmental issues and disclosing GHG emissions data in response to stakeholder demands. This research is motivated to examine carbon disclosure policies in Nigeria as a growing economy, as most prior research has focused on carbon emissions disclosure in industrialized countries. It is in the light of this developments that this study examined the relationship between carbon accounting and performance of emerging firms in Nigeria by considering corporate governance and profitability roles.Ordinary Least Square Regression technique analyses techniques was used via SPSS and it was concluded that there is a positive and significance relationship between carbon accounting and firm performance of selected company in Nigeria at 5% level of significance. When individual is considered, both profitability and corporate governance have positive and significant relationship with carbon accounting. Therefore, it was recommended that Nigerian companies should consider investment in and disclosure of carbon accounting, more independent directors and financial expertise should be considered in the composition of board of directors.