Climate action disclosure among companies: Implications for achieving global efforts to limit average global temperature rise to below 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels

Climate action disclosure among companies has gained significant attention in today’s competitive business arena in ensuring business entities effectively and appropriately reduce their greenhouse gas (GHGs) emissions. However, there are inadequate studies that have investigated the extent of corporate climate action disclosure and implications of legal frameworks and corporate attributes in achieving Net Zero Emissions (NZE) targets. To bridge this gap, this study intended to analyse the extent of climate action disclosure among Tanzanian listed companies. Data collection was conducted through document review of 78 sustainability reports, annual reports, and integrated reports published between 2022 and 2024. Further, interviews were conducted with six relevant experts from the listed private corporations and government regulatory authorities. Based on the metrics and targets recommended by the Task on Climate–related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), the climate change disclosure index was developed and used to analyse the extent of climate action disclosure. The distribution of the total mean content score was found to be 18.9%, indicating that the overall extent of climate action disclosure was low. The pattern of distribution was also low across TCFD areas. The low extent of climate action disclosure was attributed to inadequate implementation of relevant frameworks, lack of baseline data and inadequate capacity of companies and experts to perform scenario analysis and define clear climate change Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Therefore, the findings pose important implications for governments, policymakers, and companies to strengthen climate action disclosure.