Global Firms With a 3rd of Female Directors Witness Higher Emission Growth

By: WE Team | Wednesday, 2 December 2020

BloombergNEF has hinted that the boardroom performs better on developing policies and methods to address climate change risks. The firms that include electric utilities and oil producers with about 30 percent or more of director roles being filled by women

Firms, including electric utilities and oil producers with 30 percent or more of director roles filled by women, typically score better on environmental disclosures, BNEF, and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation.They are more likely to set clear climate governance strategies and show greater transparency in the release of related data, including on emissions.

“Companies with better climate governance could utilize environmental data that is measured, verified, and reported to identify emission reduction potential,” according to the report. “Climate change governance could be an important stepping stone to lower emissions in the long term.”

The study has analyzed nearly 11,700 global companies and found that emissions growth from firms with a third of female directors was 0.6 percent in comparison with 3.5 percent from those without any women on the board.

Major energy producers such as Royal Dutch Shell Plc and BP Plc are examples of companies that have set more aggressive decarbonization targets than most peers and also have a higher share of women on their boards, according to the report. However, organizations including the 30 percent Club, which advocates for more equal gender balance in workforces and senior leadership, have long pointed to studies that show diversity helps to improve performance in all areas, not only in climate governance.

Having more women in senior positions is typically associated with company outperformance relative to a sector, though that doesn’t apply to all industries and academic research isn’t yet conclusive, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. strategists said in October. Better and more standardized disclosure of gender data could help companies and investors to assess links between diversity and business performance,

In a statement, Miho Kurosaki, head of Japan and Korea research at BNEF, said “Companies should consider setting longer-term diversity goals in the same fashion that they set goals for financial performance and climate governance.”