A Study of the Impact of ESG on Corporate Carbon Performance -- Based on the mediating effect of New quality productivity

To investigate whether corporate ESG can improve corporate carbon performance and facilitate the achievement of China's "dual-carbon" objective, we utilize panel data from China's A-share-listed companies spanning 2015 to 2022. We develop new quality productivity indicators through principal component analysis and empirically assess the impact and mechanisms of ESG on corporate carbon performance using bidirectional fixed-effects, mediated-effects, and moderated-effects models. The influence and mechanism of ESG on corporate carbon performance are experimentally analyzed utilizing a two-way fixed effects model, a mediation effects model, and a moderating effects model. Research indicates that (i) strong ESG performance can markedly enhance corporate carbon performance; this conclusion remains valid following various robustness and endogeneity assessments, including substituting core explanatory variables, lagging explanatory variables by one period, and augmenting the standard error of clustering at the city level. (ii) Mechanism analysis indicates that ESG performance enhances the carbon performance of firms both directly and indirectly by fostering advancements in new quality productivity. (iii) The examination of moderating effects indicates that company financialization enhances the favorable influence of ESG on corporate carbon performance. Heterogeneity study indicates that ESG exerts a more pronounced influence in the eastern area, among non-state-owned firms, and within non-heavily polluting enterprises. Consequently, to advance the low-carbon transformation of the economy, it is essential to stratify the policy design. Incentives for ESG can be enhanced for non-state-owned enterprises, manufacturing sectors, and the eastern region, while technology subsidies or differentiated assessment criteria are required for state-owned enterprises, heavily polluting industries, and the central and western regions to address the structural disparities in ESG practices and to encourage non-manufacturing industries to pursue synergistic avenues of digital transformation and ESG integration.