Efeito da estrutura de propriedade e estrutura de remuneração em decisões que afetam a mitigação de emissões de gases do efeito estufa

Abstract

Climate change is possibly the most persistent threat to global stability in the 21st century. Companies mobilize in different types of strategic responses, according to climate change pressures, in an effort to have an adequate balance between legitimacy and competitiveness by developing concrete and achievable strategies to decrease CO2 emissions and improve the efficiency of organizational operations. Strategic elements such as increasing operational efficiency and developing less GHG emission intensive products are considered to be business solutions to this issue, and factors such as ownership structure and compensation structure also impact investment decisions in greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation and adaptation projects. This research investigates the impact of ownership structure and compensation structure on decisions affecting the mitigation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This study is based on agency theory and assumes the hypothesis that the adoption of climate change strategies is influenced by the ownership structure and compensation structure of the firm, Brazilian publicly traded companies that conducted their GHG emission inventories between the years 2010 and 2018 were analyzed. Descriptive analysis was performed and estimations were processed using the generalized method of systemic moments (GMM-SYS), the natural logarithm of the ratio of GHG emissions to gross revenue was used as the dependent variable. Econometric results indicate that a higher percentage of shares in the hands of institutional investors favors the reduction of GHG emissions. ownership in the hands of executive directors and activist investors does not have a significant relationship with GHG emission reductions. The results also indicate there is a non-significant relationship between fixed and variable executive compensation with increased greenhouse gas emissions and stock option executive compensation evidenced a negative relationship with increased greenhouse gas emissions. The research reinforces the importance of types of ownership structure and compensation structure in decisions that provide incentives to address global warming, contributing to the formulation of public policies aimed at improving the environmental behavior of Brazilian companies and supporting managers in decision making for the mitigation of GHG emissions.