Audit Committee Characteristics & Carbon Emissions Disclosure Level, is Industrial Sector Moderating the nexus? Evidence from Listed Egyptian market

Objective: The current study aims to evaluate the impact of audit committee's characteristics (Financial Expertise, Female Directors, Size, Meetings, Independent) on carbon emission disclosures and the impact of AC characteristics and the industrial sector on the carbon emissions disclosures.
Methodology: The statistics encompassing ACC, CED, and other financial metrics were generated over a five-year period from 2019 to 2023 for all listed Egyptian enterprises dealing in industrial sector in general. Additionally, since we aimed to employ panel data analysis, the sample includes all enterprises CED information for a minimum of three years obtained from the Mubasher database, so final shamble 70 firms over a five-year, which resulted in recording 350 firm year observations during the period under study.
Results: From statistical results  , it is obvious that the (FE , SIZE , MEET , INDEP ) positive effect on CED where (β = .382, 0.488, 0.875, 0.546; Sig. < 0.05), this results mean that increasing the (ACFE , ACSZE , ACMEET , ACINDEP ) ) as   increasing the level of CED. However the results of   AC. Female not significant effect on the CED where (β = -.088; Sig. > 0.05).so, there are a significant relationship between ACC and CED.
Furthermore, the independent variables of (ACINDEP× INDU.SEC; ACSZE× INDU.SEC; ACMEET× INDU.SEC;ACFE× INDU.SEC, AC.EFFEC ( & moderating role of the INDU.SEC  and other control variables can explain ( 0.537  ; 0. 528; 0.559 ;0.789 ; 0.587; 0.728) from carbon disclosure emission levels in firms. This suggests that companies engaged in activities resulting in high carbon pollution are more likely to disclose information regarding elevated CE than those that are less sensitive, indicating that industry type positively influences CED.
Value: Although considerable literature exists on sustainability reporting in both developed and developing nations, empirical investigations examining the impact of audit committees on sustainability disclosure are scarce, particularly in developing countries. Developing countries frequently have information asymmetries, and companies there ignore the need for voluntary disclosure, including information on sustainability for stakeholders. According to earlier studies on CE, some businesses continue to overlook this matter; this has an impact on the company's credibility and investors' lack of trust. There is currently little research on this topic with research subjects in Egypt, and this study is intriguing to do because it confirms the findings of other studies.