CSR Reporting and Low-Carbon Economy Initiatives in UK Banks Post-COVID-19

Abstract

In response to the increasing global urgency for a transition to a low-carbon economy, this paper explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has influenced corporate social responsibility reporting (CSRR) in the UK banking sector, focusing on green economy practices. The pandemic has heightened public and regulatory expectations for businesses, particularly banks, to play a proactive role in supporting green economic recovery efforts. This study investigates the extent to which UK banks have adapted their CSRR to address environmental sustainability and low-carbon initiatives, analysing shifts in report quality and quantity, CSR dimension focus, and the role of visuals in communicating green commitments. This paper uses content analysis aligned with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards and a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to evaluate changes in reporting practices. Findings reveal that, while the pandemic increased attention to CSR, banks primarily emphasised economic concerns, with limited advancement towards comprehensive low-carbon initiatives. Although societal commitments were more visually represented in CSRR, significant gaps in environmental accountability remain. The study suggests that UK banks’ CSRR during the pandemic was guided more by legitimacy theory than by a substantive shift toward green economy goals, highlighting an ongoing need for stronger alignment with low-carbon objectives in financial sector reporting.

Received: 22 June 2023 | Revised: 8 October 2023 | Accepted: 17 January 2024

Conflicts of Interest

 The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest to this work.

Data Availability Statement

Data are available on request from the authors.

Author Contribution Statement

Damilola Adijat Ogundana: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Validation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Data curation. Muzammal Ahmad Khan: Conceptualization, Methodology, Validation, Formal analysis, Supervision, Project administration. Jayakumar Chinnasamy: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing, Visualization, Project administration. Pongiannan Karuppusamy: Conceptualization, Resources, Writing - original draft, Writing - review & editing.