How Does Green Financial Reform Impact Carbon Emission Reduction and Pollutant Mitigation in Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises?

Bingnan Guo (), Baoliang Zhan and Mengyu Wang
Additional contact information
Bingnan Guo: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China
Baoliang Zhan: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China
Mengyu Wang: School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Jiangsu University of Science and Technology, Zhenjiang 212100, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-23

Abstract: Manufacturing enterprises, as significant contributors to high carbon emissions, play a crucial role in effectively reducing carbon emission intensity, which is essential for China to successfully achieve its “dual carbon” goals. This study examines the period from 2010 to 2022, focusing on manufacturing enterprises listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares to investigate the effects of green financial reform on carbon and pollutant emissions. Our findings reveal that the results from the parallel trend test and the regression analysis of the Difference-in-Differences (DID) model indicate that the implementation of green financial reform has a negative impact on the carbon and pollutant emissions of manufacturing enterprises, which is supported by a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity analysis shows that the emission reduction effect of green financial reform on pollutants is significant only in manufacturing enterprises with low industry competitiveness, while the inhibitory effect on carbon emissions is significant only in those with high industry competitiveness. Furthermore, the emission reduction effects are significant in highly polluting industries, non-state-owned enterprises, and small-scale firms. Green technological innovation and financing constraints serve as the channels connecting green financial reform with emission reduction and carbon mitigation. The tax burden negatively moderates this process, while environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance positively moderates it.

Keywords: green financial reform; carbon reduction and emission mitigation; mediation effect; moderating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7709/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/17/7709/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:17:y:2025:i:17:p:7709-:d:1733604

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().