Corporate social responsibility (CSR) can offer a protective buffer helping firms avoid the worst economic effects in times of crisis. We extend the extant literature by considering whether firm substantive climate commitments are effective at protecting the firm from financial losses during the COVID‐19 pandemic. We assess firm financial outcomes through (1) crash and post‐crash stock performance and (2) the severity of loss in the COVID‐19 stock market crash period. We identify substantive climate commitments as those carbon emission targets aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), which links firm's carbon targets to commitments made under the Paris Agreement. Using a sample of 336 US‐based companies, our findings show that science‐based targets are positively related to crash‐period returns and negatively related to severity of loss. Among firms with science‐based targets, only those externally verified and approved by the SBTi are influential in buffering financial losses during a crisis.

中文翻译：

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对气候变化的坚定承诺：COVID-19 危机期间基于科学的目标对财务成果的影响


企业社会责任（CSR）可以提供保护性缓冲，帮助企业避免在危机时期遭受最严重的经济影响。我们通过考虑坚定的实质性气候承诺是否能有效保护公司在 COVID-19 大流行期间免受财务损失来扩展现有文献。我们通过 (1) 崩盘和崩盘后的股票表现以及 (2) COVID-19 股市崩盘期间损失的严重程度来评估公司的财务成果。我们将实质性​​气候承诺视为与科学目标倡议 (SBTi) 相一致的碳排放目标，该倡议将公司的碳目标与《巴黎协定》下的承诺联系起来。通过使用 336 家美国公司的样本，我们的研究结果表明，基于科学的目标与崩溃期回报呈正相关，与损失严重程度呈负相关。在具有科学目标的公司中，只有那些经过 SBTi 外部验证和批准的公司才能在危机期间缓冲财务损失方面具有影响力。