AUTHOR=He Yu , Fu Lin , Li Tao , Wei Ran TITLE=Sustainable development in the context of pandemic: the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on green investment JOURNAL=Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution VOLUME=12 YEAR=2024 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/ecology-and-evolution/articles/10.3389/fevo.2024.1363842 DOI=10.3389/fevo.2024.1363842 ISSN=2296-701X ABSTRACT=

Promoting green investment is the inevitable choice for sustainable economics against climate change. We examine how the COVID-19 pandemic affected corporate green investment. Using a sample of publicly listed firms in China, we document the negative and significant effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on corporate green investment. Further analyses suggest that the COVID-19 pandemic impeded corporate green investment by exacerbating firms’ financial constraints. We also find that the COVID-19 pandemic had no significant effect on total investment, suggesting that the pandemic shock only changed investment structure. In summary, our findings reveal the real effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on green development at the firm level.