The Impact of Carbon Emissions on Corporate Cost of Debt (COD): A Research on Borsa İstanbul (BIST) Sustainability Index

This study examines the influence of carbon emissions of companies traded on the BIST Sustainability Index on the cost of debt for 2017-2021. In other words, the study aims to guide decision-makers towards carbon emissions reduction by showing a significant impact between the cost of debt and carbon emissions. The data were obtained from the Public Disclosure Platform, companies’ financial statements, annual reports, sustainability reports, integrated reports, and the DataStream database and were subjected to statistical analysis. Panel data pooled OLS method was used in the study. The study found a significant impact of total carbon emissions, carbon emission intensity, leverage, and structure variables on the cost of debt. However, it was concluded that the size, return on assets, growth, and cash flow variables did not significantly impact the cost of debt.