Do diverse boards accelerate the corporate energy transition? Insights from emerging markets

Mounting investor expectations and patchy regulatory progress have intensified interest in governance mechanisms that can accelerate the corporate energy transition in emerging markets. This study investigates whether board diversity influences the share of renewable energy within firms’ total energy consumption in Latin American listed firms. Using a panel of 65 non-financial companies in the S&P MILA Pacific Alliance Index (Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru) for 2020–2024 (N = 325), we estimate linear mixed-effects regressions with firmlevel random intercepts. Board heterogeneity is captured through two composite measures: the Structural Diversity Index (ISD) and the Demographic Diversity Index (IDD). Both indices are positively associated with firms’ renewable energy intensity; with boards exhibiting higher proportions of women, older directors and foreign directors showing the strongest effects. Among the controls, mandatory clean-energy quotas, larger asset bases, and higher leverage further encourage renewable energy use. Cross-country differences reveal that, despite ambitious policy targets, firms operating in less stable regulatory environments, particularly in Mexico, exhibit lower adjusted renewable energy intensity, underscoring the role of institutional credibility in translating internal governance into environmental outcomes. By offering multi-country evidence from the Pacific Alliance, introducing replicable diversity indices, and focusing on a metric directly aligned with SDG 7, the study advances governance and sustainability research. Practically, the findings suggest that boards diversified along structural and demographic lines, when supported by coherent and predictable regulatory frameworks, can hasten corporate decarbonisation.