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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1575398
This article is part of the Research Topic Challenges and Opportunities for Decarbonizing the Maritime Industry View all 7 articles
The carbon reduction effect of ESG performance: Empirical evidence from Chinese shipping enterprises
Provisionally accepted- 1 School of Economics and Management, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, China
- 2 Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
- 3 Chinese Academy of Fiscal Science, Beijing, China
Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices have become a crucial pathway for the sustainable development of enterprises. Can they provide new momentum for the low-carbon transformation of shipping enterprises? Based on unbalanced panel data from China’s A-share listed shipping enterprises from 2009 to 2022, this study empirically examines the impact of ESG performance on carbon emission reduction and its regional heterogeneity. The findings indicate that ESG performance significantly reduces the carbon emission intensity of shipping enterprises, a conclusion that remains robust across various robustness tests and endogeneity analyses. Further heterogeneity analysis reveals that the carbon emission reduction effect of ESG performance is more pronounced in the southern region. These results underscore the importance of strengthening ESG capabilities as a key strategy for promoting the low-carbon transition of shipping enterprises and achieving sustainable development.
Keywords: ESG performance, Carbon emission intensity, Shipping enterprises, Low-carbon transition, sustainable development
Received: 12 Feb 2025; Accepted: 12 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Li, Suo, Huang and Sun. 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:
Yixuan Huang, Chinese Academy of Fiscal Science, Beijing, 100142, China
Xiangdong Sun, Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing, 100029, Beijing Municipality, China
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