Disclosure dynamism: TCFD aligned climate claims of UK corporates

Abstract

This research examines how climate claims by companies from the United Kingdom have changed over the years, especially when they became certain about the mandate of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). We use text data from FTSE 100 companies for eight consecutive years, starting from 2016, and apply the robust ClimateBERT algorithm to analyse company statements related to climate claims, where they claim how they take care of climate in their business operations. Our findings show that the total number of corporate climate claims made has substantially increased since 2016, resulting in an overall improvement in corporate environmental claims till 2023. This coincides with the official announcement of the TCFD mandate.Our analyses also indicate that the proportion of claims in each report has increased over the years despite economic uncertainties. Additionally, the study findings reveal that even industries with minimal or negligible climate claims can still be associated with carbon-intensive activities. The complementary features of the legitimacy and stakeholder theories support our findings. By applying ClimateBERT, our research mitigates existing data challenges, yielding an efficient framework for analysing text through a robust natural language processing model. Our findings will assist policymakers in identifying necessary modifications to corporate climate disclosure and will help assess the impact of the Taskforce intervention on climate-related financial disclosure.