A cross-country analysis of corporate carbon performance: An international investment perspective

In this study, we examine corporate carbon performance globally from the perspective of country-level dispersion. The average carbon performance of listed companies in the non-OECD countries increases more after the Paris Agreement than that of listed companies in the OECD countries. However, under an increasing trend of average country-level carbon performance, the dispersion of corporate carbon performance is reduced more in the OECD countries vis-à-vis the non-OECD countries. In addition, international equity ownership is negatively associated with the dispersion of country-level corporate carbon performance in the post-Paris Agreement period. This finding supports our conjecture that sophisticated foreign investors from developed countries exert a significant positive influence on the carbon management efficiency of domestic firms in developing countries. •Employ global corporate carbon performance data to examine country-level dispersion.•Carbon performance in non-OECD countries increases more after the Paris Agreement.•Foreign equity ownership is negatively related to carbon performance dispersion.