DISCLOSURE OF ENVIRONMENTAL INFORMATION BY COMPANIES IN THE ELECTRIC POWER SECTOR OF BRAZIL

In recent years, the environmental issue has gained ground in the business world and has provided a wider dissemination of environmental externalities. In this sense, this study aims to identify the level of environmental disclosure in the financial statements of companies in the electricity sector in Brazil, in 2012. To this end, the Brazilian companies in the electricity sector classified as 100 largest companies in Brazil according to Exame magazine selected. This contingent found a total of 13 organizations, these only 8 have their statements published on the BM&FBovespa site. Thus, we performed an analysis of the Notes and Management Reports, taking into account the NBC-T 15, to identify the level of environmental disclosure of these companies, through a classification criteria ranging from good, good, fair and poor. Word checklist software was used to perform content analysis. The results show that the disclosure of environmental information are not identified in these reports. Companies with the most satisfactory level (regular), with 36.36% of disclosure, were Petrobras, AES Eletropaulo, Cemig and Copel, and firms with poor disclosure level, with 0% disclosure were Eletrobras and Ligth Distribution, denoting that this business segment the level of environmental disclosure is still fragile and needs regulations for greater transparency.