Prof Nigar Sultana
Professor of Accounting
UN SDG13 Lead, Sustainability in Business and Law Steering Group
ESG and Carbon Accounting Lead, Curtin Institute of Energy Transition
Climate Research Expert, Australian Accounting Standard Board
BIO
Professor Nigar Sultana is a chartered accountant with over 15 years of experience in tertiary education and research.
Over the years, Nigar has been teaching executive education programs, undergraduate and graduate courses on sustainability, ESG regulations, reporting and assurance and carbon accounting both nationally and internationally.
Nigar has a strong track record of grant income and research outcomes in the top 10 A and A* accounting journals in areas such as corporate governance, gender diversity, environmental, ESG sustainability, natural capital accounting, climate and carbon accounting.
Nigar’s research work has also been showcased on multiple media platforms including 7News Australia, ABC News, MSN News and other news outlets.
Nigar has a very strong research engagement profile with industry including government departments, corporations, and the not-for-profit sector providing operational and workable solutions in areas such as financial literacy and the empowerment of vulnerable communities, gender equity on corporate boards, natural capital accounting, climate and carbon accounting and reporting.
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Apart from being a climate research expert on the Australian Accounting Standards Board, Nigar also works with regulators internationally in the areas of mandatory climate-related financial disclosure, GHG assurance, and ethical requirements in GHG assurance to name a few. Nigar is currently serving as the Climate Action Lead and ESG and Carbon Accounting Lead within the Curtin Institute of Energy Transition.
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In recognition of her research excellence and industry engagement, Nigar has been awarded the “New Researcher of the Year 2015”, the “Researcher of the Year 2019”, the “Research Industry Engagement of the Year (highly commended) 2020” and the “Research Industry Engagement of the Year (highly commended) 2022” awards.
Presentation
Women Leaders in Net Zero energy transition
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Countries around the world have implemented policies or regulations promoting greater gender diversity in corporate boardrooms.
We investigate whether gender diversity on boards leads to higher levels of commitment by firms to renewable energy. Using international data across 42 countries for the years 2010 and 2022, we find significant differences between all male boards and gender diverse boards in terms of renewable energy commitments suggesting that female leaders are more committed to renewable energy/net zero emissions than their male counterparts.
We also find that the association between women directors and renewable energy commitments is more pronounced after the Paris Agreement and for boards with a critical mass of women.
In terms of jurisdictional variations, we find that code law countries with boards comprising more women demonstrate greater renewable energy commitments than common law countries. This is also the case with Asia compared to Europe.
We find that countries in Oceania, followed by South America and then North America with boards comprising more women commit to greater levels of renewable energy in that order.
Our results reinforce global calls for increasing gender representation at the highest levels of organisations to meet the expectations of a greater range of stakeholders in terms of global renewable energy generation and usage