Abstract:

Carbon is one of the most important greenhouse gases that emerge when companies run their activities. Carbon emissions are the greenhouse gas in which many regulations are made to reduce emissions due to its effect on global warming and climate change. Due to both these regulations and environmental sustainability, in recent years, companies need to measure and explain carbon emissions and try to reduce their emissions. In this study, it is aimed to determine whether there is a relationship between carbon emissions and default risk of companies operating in Borsa Istanbul, and if there is, the effect of this relationship on the company's default risk will be examined. Therefore, the total carbon emissions of the companies were determined as the dependent variable and the distance to default (DD) variable calculated with the Merton model that is obtained by regression analysis. In the analysis, return on assets, leverage and firm size were determined as control variables. The results show that carbon emissions have a significant effect on the default risk. Moreover, the regression coefficients of companies indicate that while the default risk increases, carbon emissions increase as well. Moreover, since there is a significant relationship between control variables and default risk, companies should consider reducing and to manage carbon emissions while making decisions.

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