Legal System Of Environmental Information Disclosure Of Listed Companies

With the growing emphasis on environmental protection and sustainable development, the public are calling for higher standards on environmental performance of listed companies. Effective disclosure of environmental information can help shareholders of listed companies, investors in the market and the public understand the environmental performance of listed companies completely and timely to their own interests. Meanwhile, disclosure of environmental information can help supervising and constraining environmental behavior of listed companies and facilitate them to take environmental factors into full consideration during their daily operations and encourage them to undertake social responsibilities voluntarily. Therefore, a perfect legal institution for disclosure of environmental information of listed company may not only enhance the interests of different subjects, but may also facilitate the purpose of environmental protection. It is highly practical to improve the legal institution for disclosure of environmental information of listed company in China.This essay discusses the legal institution for disclosure of environmental information of listed company in three parts. Chapter1analyzes the concept and features of environmental information in details and discusses its theoretical foundation from the theory of environmental right to know, fiduciary duty, information asymmetry, efficient markets hypothesis, and corporate social responsibilities. Chapter2discusses legal institutions for disclosure of environmental information of listed company in both China and the United States. The legal institution in China mainly includes verification of listed company on environmental protection and environmental disclosure of listed company while its counterpart in the United States are reflected in Regulation S-K and SAB92enacted by SEC. Chapter3analyzes practical problems of Chinese listed companies in disclosure of environmental information, which includes insufficiency of laws and regulations, low rate of disclosure, nonstandard disclosure of environmental information and their poor utilizability. For the purpose of solving these problems, this essay provides some suggestions on improvement of the legal institution for disclosure of environmental information of listed company in China from the following aspects, which includes clarifying the subjects of right and duty of disclosure of environmental information, combining mandatory and voluntary disclosure, combining consistent disclosure and those disclosure at listing, improving the content and form of environmental information, improving corporate governance of listed companies, increasing the punishment on violation of environmental disclosure by listed companies, and improving remedies for the public.