The current status of greenhouse gas reporting by Chinese companies: a test of legitimacy theory

In recent years, the detrimental effect of greenhouse gas has raised commentary on the balance between economic development and environmental protection (Ceng, 2010; Xu and Yang, 2010). The Kyoto Protocol (2005) urged major developed countries to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions to by about 5.2 percent before 2012 compared to the 1990 level (Wei, 2007). The world business summit on climate change, held at Copenhangen in 2009, further stressed the importance of a low carbon economy. The significance of China in reducing global carbon emissions is evidenced by the fact that it is still the second‐largest contributor of CO2 in the world (Liu and Diamond, 2005) and is ranked second in the world in terms of total gross domestic product (GDP) (Mendleson, 2010).