Indicators for sustainable development: Relationship between indicators related to climate change and explanatory factors

The objectives of this research are (i) to determine sustainable development indicators, (ii) to develop the indicator corresponding to greenhouse gas emissions according to EC2 financial implications due to climate change, and (iii) to analyze how certain variables affect this sustainability indicator. The sample used comprises firms from different countries and industries. The activity sectors selected to undertake this research are consistent with those established in the Green Paper on Greenhouse Gas Emissions Trading within the European Union from 2000 and in the Kyoto Protocol. Our findings show that analyzing indicators deriving from the proposals of the EC2 financial implications due to climate change, allows us to observe the effects of factors that explain the voluntary disclosure of environmental information. More specifically, our results point to a direct relationship between companies which have their headquarters in countries that have ratified the Kyoto Protocol, size, environmental performance and the disclosure of information the indicators proposed for greenhouse gas emissions based on the proposals of the EC2 financial implications due to climate change. Copyright (C) 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.