The Relevance of Climate Change Related Risks on Corporate Financial and Non-Financial Disclosure in Italian Listed Companies

Abstract

Climate change (CC) is undoubtedly an increasing issue on the agenda of politicians, scientists, mass-media, and academics. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) set up a Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to establish a set of recommendations for consistent and material “disclosures that will help financial market participants understand their climate risks”. Companies have to adopt serious actions to measure and manage this potential risk that may deeply affect their businesses. This paper aims at investigating, through the lens of the legitimacy theory, how and to what extent the biggest Italian nonfinancial companies of the FTSE-MIB disclose on Climate change risk, what is the level of depth of their disclosure and their level of preparation and adherence to the TCFD guidelines.