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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Environmental Economics and Management
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1570848
This article is part of the Research TopicClimate Risk and Green and Low-Carbon Transformation: Economic Impact and Policy ResponseView all 21 articles
Climate policy uncertainty, Environmental regulation, and Corporate green innovation
Provisionally accepted- 1Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha, Anhui Province, China
- 2Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, China
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Green innovation is an important driver for enterprises to realize sustainable development, but there are "double externalities" of environmental protection and knowledge spillovers. The climate policy uncertainty is a "driver" for corporate green innovation, or a "barrier" hindering corporate green innovation. Existing literature has explored the relationship between the two based on specific industries, but no consistent conclusions have been reached. This article uses study employs data from 3,763 publicly listed companies in China from 2010 to 2020 as an empirical research sample to analyze examine the actual impact of climate policy uncertainty on corporate green innovation and its underlying mechanisms. It further examines the effects of climate policy uncertainty on different types of green innovation activities and the moderating effect of corporate social responsibility. The study finds that climate policy uncertainty can promote corporate green innovation, primarily through channels such as enhancing environmental regulation. Both corporate social responsibility and ESG performance have a positive moderating effect on the relationship between climate policy uncertainty and corporate green innovation. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that climate policy uncertainty can foster green innovation in state-owned enterprises, large enterprises, companies in eastern regions, and those in areas with lower levels of green finance development; however, it does not have a significant impact on non-state-owned enterprises, small enterprises, companies in central and western regions, and those in areas with higher green finance development. Additionally, Further further research indicates that from the perspective of green innovation motivation, climate policy uncertainty promotes strategic green innovation but does not have a significant effect on substantive green innovation. The findings of this study provide a theoretical foundation and practical insights for the government in formulating relevant climate policies and promoting green innovation in enterprises.
Keywords: Climate policy uncertainty, Corporate green innovation, environmental regulation, Corporate social responsibility, ESG performance
Received: 04 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yi, Hu and Yang. 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: Jianlan Yang, Hunan Agricultural University, Changsha, 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.