CEO Tenure and Firm‐Level Climate Change Risk

ABSTRACT Using a sample of US publicly listed firms from 2002 to 2023, our findings reveal a significant association between CEO tenure and a firm's exposure to climate change risk. Specifically, we show that a firm's climate risk exposure tends to increase during the early stages of a CEO's tenure and declines as their tenure progresses. Our results are robust across multiple model specifications and alternative proxies, confirming the validity of our findings. The concave (inverse‐U‐shaped) relationship between CEO tenure and climate risk is especially pronounced in firms facing higher environmental litigation risk and those with strong environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. Notably, we find that this concave relationship is more evident in firms led by lower ability CEOs and those with higher CEO compensation. Moreover, CEOs in firms with lower efficiency in conventional input–output measures, as well as those operating in more transparent environments, are more effective at shifting their firms' climate risk exposure from positive to negative. By examining the influence of corporate governance mechanisms on firm‐level climate change risk, our study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the CEO's role in managing corporate climate footprints.