Climate policy uncertainty and corporate carbon performance: Evidence from transportation enterprises

Abstract

The study constructs a fixed-effects model to explore the impact of climate policy uncertainty on corporate carbon performance (CCP), using data from transportation enterprises listed on China's A-shares market from 2008 to 2022. Our findings evidence that climate policy uncertainty significantly suppresses the carbon performance of transportation enterprises. It weakens the credibility of policy commitments and exacerbates perceptions of investment risks, leading to delays in green investments and stagnation in technological innovation, thereby creating a "carbon lock-in" effect. In addition, executives' environmental background effectively mitigates the negative impact, while regional environmental regulations amplify it. Furthermore, heterogeneity analysis shows that state-owned, non-high-tech, and labor-intensive transportation enterprises experience more significant suppression of carbon performance due to climate policy uncertainty. Our study supports mitigating climate policy risks and optimizing low-carbon transition incentives for transportation enterprises.

Keywords: Climate policy uncertainty; Corporate carbon performance; Environmental regulation; Transportation enterprise.