Governance, Ownership, and Carbon Transparency in Institutional Voids: The Contingent Role of Environmental Committees in Sub‐Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT This study investigates how corporate governance and ownership structures influence carbon transparency in Sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA), a region characterised by institutional voids and voluntary reporting and whether environmental committees condition these relationships. Using 2280 firm‐year observations from six SSA stock exchanges (2012–2021), we apply random‐effects, system GMM, and Driscoll–Kraay estimators to address endogeneity and cross‐sectional dependence. Board size, gender diversity, audit committee independence, government ownership and the presence of environmental committees significantly enhance carbon transparency. In contrast, institutional ownership has a negative effect, indicating that private information channels may replace public transparency, which can lead to reduced accountability and hinder efforts to improve overall corporate governance. Environmental committees strengthen the positive effects of most governance mechanisms and partially mitigate the adverse impact of institutional ownership, highlighting their role as a cost‐effective and impactful governance innovation in environments with weak regulatory frameworks. Moving beyond universalist governance prescriptions, this study reveals how gaps in institutions affect the effectiveness of governance mechanisms in emerging markets. It offers actionable insights for regulators and boards seeking to institutionalise climate accountability through targeted structural reforms particularly the formalisation of environmental oversight via dedicated committees.