How Green Finance Drives the Synergy of Pollution Reduction and Carbon Mitigation: Evidence from Chinese A-Share Firms

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides empirical evidence on the mechanisms (resource reallocation, ESG performance) through which green finance drives pollution-carbon synergy, and boundary conditions (green innovation, carbon market participation).

🏢実務担当者:Highlights the importance of integrating ESG evaluation with capital allocation and designing green financial instruments tailored to firms' transition stages, with fintech and transparency as amplifiers.

🏛政策担当者:Demonstrates that green finance can curb greenwashing and that combining fintech with environmental disclosure enhances effectiveness, informing policy design for green finance and disclosure mandates.

As a pivotal instrument for integrating environmental governance with a low-carbon transition, green finance plays a critical role in achieving China’s dual-carbon goals. This study draws on a panel dataset covering 2008–2023, combining city-level indices of green finance development with firm-level emissions data from Chinese A-share listed companies. It investigates how green finance influences firms’ ability to reduce pollution and carbon emissions in a coordinated way, as well as the mechanisms and boundary conditions of this relationship. The results reveal that green finance significantly enhances firms’ synergistic performance in pollution and carbon abatement. The effect operates mainly through two channels: reallocating resources more efficiently and strengthening ESG performance. The benefits are particularly evident among firms with a stronger green innovation capacity, higher levels of carbon market participation, and more advanced environmental management systems. Green finance also helps deter corporate greenwashing. In addition, financial technology and environmental information disclosure amplify its positive impact. These findings highlight the need to deepen the integration of ESG evaluation with capital allocation and to design green financial instruments suited to firms at different stages of transition. They also point to the importance of harnessing the complementarities of fintech and environmental transparency to further enhance firms’ sustainable performance.