Carbon Neutrality and Shareholder Value: Examining the Role of CO 2 Abatement Technologies

To address climate change, firms that pursue carbon neutrality might adopt various CO 2 abatement technologies, including purchasing carbon credits; investing in third-party CO 2 capture and storage; or redesigning products, processes, buildings, and energy sources to abate CO 2 emissions. Existing research yields mixed evidence of the effects of such actions, especially technological choices, on shareholder value, though. Building on the Natural Resource-Based View, this article seeks to establish the relationship of different CO 2 abatement technologies with shareholder value, using multiple event studies of firm-level carbon neutrality announcements and technology-level CO 2 abatement announcements issued in the United States between 2014 and 2024. Of the various CO 2 prevention (insetting) technologies, product and production technologies effectively create shareholder value by establishing a difficult-to-imitate source of competitive differentiation, whereas investments in green transportation, renewable energy, and buildings exert neutral effects on shareholder value. Among the various CO 2 control (offsetting) technologies, investments in CO 2 capture and storage technologies destroy shareholder value. Although purchasing carbon credits has a neutral effect in general, they can destroy shareholder value when announced in isolation, unbundled from other abatement technologies. These nuanced findings indicate that CO 2 control technologies do not undermine shareholder value, as long as they offer an inexpensive means to adjust investments in offsets over time, to complement the insetting efforts. This research thus expands sustainable operations literature by clarifying the relationship between CO 2 abatement technologies and shareholder value, while also providing initial cues of some underlying mechanisms. These insights in turn can inform managers and policymakers seeking to decrease risk while also accelerating climate transitions.

• 저널Production and Operations Management
• 토픽Sustainable Supply Chain Management · Strategy and Management
• DOI10.1177/10591478261470127
• 저자Gabriele Mauro, Jury Gualandris, Evelyne Vanpoucke