Do risk committee attributes enhance climate risk disclosure? Evidence from the listed mining firms in South Africa

Abstract

This study examines the role of risk committee (RC) attributes in climate risk disclosure among 31 mining firms in South Africa. Focusing on annual data between 2016 and 2021, this study employs a feasible generalized least squares technique, a generalized method of moments, and a method of moment quantile regression to control for endogeneity, heterogeneity, and distributional effects between the target variables. The study revealed that RC characteristics such as RC size, RC independence, and RC gender diversity enhance climate risk disclosure, suggesting that these governance variables are crucial drivers of climate risk reporting among the listed mining firms in South Africa. On the other hand, the frequency of RC meetings impedes corporate climate risk disclosure. The results are consistent across different model specifications and robust to various methodologies. The study concludes that risk committee attributes are essential corporate governance mechanisms that drive corporate decisions on the climate risk disclosure of mining firms in South Africa.