Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today. In this paper, we analyze the role of firms in mitigating climate change through their model of corporate governance. We examine the impact of key organizational control and incentive mechanisms on firms' carbon emission intensity. Using a panel of 305 listed firms in France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan over the period 2015–2021, we show that board gender diversity plays a crucial role in reducing both firms' direct and indirect carbon emissions. Moreover, the presence of a sustainability committee can be an effective arrangement to limit direct GHG emissions. However, our study finds no significant evidence for the variables of board size, board independence, and top sustainability‐based executive compensation. Our findings vary depending on the high‐ or low‐emission sector. Based on these results, we propose several managerial and policy implications that can help improve corporate climate performance.

中文翻译：

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公司治理机制是否有助于减少碳排放？法国、德国、英国和日本上市公司的一些实证

气候变化是当今人类面临的最大挑战之一。在本文中，我们分析了公司通过其公司治理模型在缓解气候变化方面的作用。我们研究了关键组织控制和激励机制对公司碳排放强度的影响。使用 2015 年至 2021 年期间法国、德国、英国和日本的 305 家上市公司组成的小组，我们表明董事会性别多元化在减少两家公司的直接和间接碳排放方面发挥着至关重要的作用。此外，可持续发展委员会的存在可以成为限制直接温室气体排放的有效安排。然而，我们的研究没有发现关于董事会规模、董事会独立性和基于可持续发展的顶级高管薪酬等变量的重要证据。我们的研究结果因高排放或低排放行业而异。基于这些结果，我们提出了一些有助于改善企业气候绩效的管理和政策影响。