Climate Disclosure and Financial Performance on Sustainable Outcomes of Listed Manufacturing Firms in Nigeria

Abstract

The study explores the intricate relationships between climate disclosure, financial performance, and sustainable outcomes within the Nigerian manufacturing sector. It addresses the evolving landscape of corporate responsibility, driven by global climate
concerns and the increasing demand for transparency from diverse stakeholders. Using an ex-post facto research design, the study based its analyses on pre-existing data from 2019- 2024, Climate Integration Metrics, and the sustainability Index database. Panel pooled regression was conducted to analysis the impact of climate change and financial performance on sustainable outcomes in Nigerian manufacturing firms. Their findings, although non-significant, indicated positive coefficients of CDP and ICCC with the SGB index of 0.14, p = 0.971 and 0.564, p 0.872, respectively. FP had a positive but non significant effect on SGB, p=0.677. These results imply that exploring climate through accounting reflects sustainability goals, and climate accounting has an impact that does not count for much in terms of meaning. The study concluded that better enforcement of existing regulations improved the disclosure framework targeted capacity-building and helped the assimilation of climate change into the accounting infrastructure of corporations. The study recommended that standardized climate risk disclosures for all listed manufacturing firms should proposed to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria (FRCN) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) as regulatory authorities who could implement such a requirement as well as corporate boards to make climate risk a board governance level issue supported by sustainability accounting divisions that take on the responsibility for long-term
environmental accountability and integrate corporate risk.