Family Ownership and Corporate Climate Change Commitment: The Role of Environmental Committee and <scp>ESG</scp> Disclosures

ABSTRACT The United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) 13 calls on member nations to accelerate efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and mitigate global warming, which has led to climate‐ and water‐related disasters. In this context, we investigate family owners' commitment to climate change and the moderating role of environmental committees and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures on this relationship. Using a sample of 4056 firm‐year observations of firms listed on the London Stock Exchange over the period 2013–2022, we report that family firms are positively associated with climate change commitment. Moreover, we found that environmental committees and ESG disclosures strengthen the positive behavior of family owners towards climate change commitment. Our study makes important contributions to family business and ESG literature by highlighting the positive behavior of family owners towards climate change issues. Our findings offer valuable policy implications for regulators and policymakers by emphasizing the positive environmental behavior of family firms towards climate change issues, as urged by UNSDG 13.