The Impact of Environmental Regulations on Carbon Emissions of Chinese Enterprises and Their Resource Heterogeneity

Abstract

At present, net-zero emissions have become a widely accepted goal globally. For a giant carbon emitter like China, especially after just experiencing a high-energy consumption, high-emission, and low-efficiency extensive economic model, achieving the global net-zero emissions target by the middle of this century is particularly important. The implementation of environmental regulation policies is one of the inevitable choices for achieving carbon peak and carbon neutrality. Existing theoretical analysis shows that environmental regulation acts on pollution emissions through cost effects and technological innovation, but relevant studies mostly focus on macro effects and ignore the impact of enterprise heterogeneity. This study calculates the carbon emission data of listed enterprises in China from 2012 to 2021 and examines the impact of environmental regulation policies on the carbon emission intensity of enterprises and its transmission mechanism from both theoretical and empirical perspectives. At the same time, the heterogeneity effect of resource-based industry and non-resource-based industry is considered. The research results show that China’s environmental supervision has been increasing year by year, which can reduce the carbon emission intensity of enterprises by improving the level of environmental disclosure of enterprises, environmental management concepts, and resource allocation efficiency and accelerating the establishment of environmental systems of enterprises, but the effect of technological innovation has not been highlighted. Further heterogeneity also indicates that environmental regulation is more conducive to reducing the carbon emission intensity of non-resource-based enterprises, small enterprises, and non-state-owned enterprises. The conclusions of this paper provide a precise direction for the implementation of environmental regulation policies in China and the world.