Skip to main content

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Policy and Governance
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1444671

How dose Central Environmental Protection Inspection drive the green transformation of China's heavy polluting enterprises from an ESG perspective?

Provisionally accepted
Wanting Wang Wanting Wang 1*Chong Mao Chong Mao 2Shenya Liu Shenya Liu 3
  • 1 School of Accountancy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China
  • 2 China Development Bank Shanxi Branch, Taiyuan, China
  • 3 State Grid Shanxi Electric Power Company Yangquan Power Supply Company, Yangquan, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    The green transformation of heavy polluting enterprises under the Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality Goals needs the escort of command environmental regulation. This paper takes the first round of central environmental supervision as a natural experiment, reflecting the degree of green transformation through the ESG (environmental, social, and governance) level of enterprises. Taking Chinese A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen from 2010 to 2022 as the research object, a dual machine learning model is used to find that this system can improve the ESG level of enterprises and promote their green transformation. Using a dual machine learning model, it is found that the system can enhance the ESG level of enterprises and promote their green transformation. Mechanism analyses show that the system promotes green transformation by enhancing green innovation capability, safeguarding the rights and interests of upstream and downstream supply chain actors, and enhancing governance diligence, thus encouraging enterprises to assume environmental, social and governance responsibilities. It is also found that at the macro-policy level, with the migration of the inspection area to the west and the strengthening of local environmental governance, and at the micro-firm level, the higher the degree of digitisation and the larger the size of assets, the system's effect on the green transformation of heavy polluting enterprises deepens. It is further found that the spillover effect of green transformation within industries strengthens the positive effect of the Central Environmental Protection Inspections on enterprises' green transformation compared to inter-industry.

    Keywords: Central environmental protection inspection, green transformation, Double machine learning, ESG, Heavy polluting enterprises

    Received: 06 Jun 2024; Accepted: 26 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Mao and Liu. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Wanting Wang, School of Accountancy, Shandong University of Finance and Economics, Jinan, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.