The effect of external assurance of sustainability report and carbon emissions disclosure on firm value

Sustainable development is an important issue today. Investors need both financial, social, and environmental performance for investment consideration. Every activity, decision, and company policy will have a comprehensive impact on performance. Therefore, sustainability accounting is a must, so stakeholders understand the firm’s sustainable resource management. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of independent assurance and disclosure of carbon emissions on firm value with firm size, profitability, leverage, and liquidity as control variables. This research has secondary data from annual financial reports and sustainability reports from high-profile companies listed on the Indonesian Stock Exchange (2016 – 2020). The banking industry and the service industry exclude from the sample. Based on these criteria, we obtained a selection of 185 firm years. The result confirms that independence assurance and carbon emission disclosure positively affect a firm’s value. Independence assurance is still little used in sustainability reporting. Likewise, a few companies disclose carbon emissions in sustainability reports. This research expectations to be an evaluation material for companies in maintaining and improving the company’s reputation, which will increase the firm’s value. Companies can evaluate the benefits of using independent assurers and disclosing carbon emissions in sustainability reports on the firm value.