How Carbon Risk Management is Challenging Corporate Governance of Alberta’s Major Oil Producers during the first stages of Canada’s Energy Transition (2015-2020)
Date
2022-08-03
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Abstract
My dissertation consists of three connected studies that collaboratively investigate whether carbon-related institutional pressures were generating corporate governance dynamics, how the composition and characteristics of the board of directors were evolving due to carbon risk constrains, and how carbon risk management was influenced by its diverse conceptualization among six case studies of major oil producers of Alberta: Suncor Energy Inc., Imperial Oil Ltd., Cenovus Energy Inc., Husky Energy Inc., Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., and MEG Energy Corp. These companies together concentrate more than 80% of total oil production of the province. This research sheds light on how boards’ carbon awareness, decision making, and responsibilities have been evolving in accordance with increased board members’ acknowledgement of carbon and other environmental constraints during Alberta’s early years of energy transition into clean energy technologies (from 2015 until 2020). This research is qualitative and predominantly descriptive-comparative and uses primary archival data sources such as management circulars/proxy statements, annual reports and financial statements, sustainability reports, and reports to the Carbon Disclosure Project, all of them provided by major oil producers of Alberta. Specialized secondary data sources were also used to provide theoretical frameworks to aid with data interpretation. Databases, such as Capital IQ S&P were used to gather shareholder holdings for each company. Thereby, on the basis of the comprehensive analysis of primary documents of oil companies, complemented with secondary sources, verification and inductive-deductive methodology were used to collect, assess, process, consolidate and analyze variations during the period of study. The findings captured stockholders’ variations, adaptation on board’s composition (knowledge, skills, and functional experience) and trends on characteristics (independence, interlocks, gender, diversity, tenure, and age of board members) as well as evolution of enterprise risk management systems according to conceptualization of carbon risk in the studied companies. Based on the results of this research it appears that corporate governance with increased carbon risk awareness and longer-term environmental perspectives can assist companies of Alberta’s oil industry to enhance effective energy transition processes.
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Carbon Risk Management, Canada's Energy Transition, Corporate Governance Management, Sustainable Energy Development, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Performance, Carbon Awareness & Carbon Risk, Carbon Institutional Pressures
Citation
Mariño Echegaray, A. (2022). How Carbon Risk Management is Challenging Corporate Governance of Alberta’s Major Oil Producers during the first stages of Canada’s Energy Transition (2015-2020) (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.