| The rapid development since the reform and opening up has made China’s economic growth achieve remarkable achievements,but the extensive development of excessive pursuit of "golden mountains and silver mountains" has also made China increasingly far away from "green waters and green mountains".In September,2020,President Xi Jinping solemnly declared to the world at the general debate of the 75 th UN General Assembly: China will enhance its national independent contribution,adopt more effective policies and measures,and strive to reach the peak of carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060.It is estimated that the realization of the goal of "double carbon" needs about 200 trillion RMB of capital investment,however,government funds can only cover a small part,and the "carbon peak,carbon neutral" strategy faces a huge funding gap.In February 2021,the Guiding Opinions of the State Council on Accelerating the Establishment and Improvement of the Green and Low-Carbon Circular Development Economic System took "vigorously developing green finance" as an important measure to "establish and improve the green and low-carbon circular development economic system and ensure the realization of the carbon peak and carbon neutral goals".Green bonds,as a new financing tool that takes into account the characteristics of "green" and "finance",are an important financial means to help the "double carbon" plan break through the financial shackles and help the efficient allocation of environmental protection resources(Monk and Perkins,2020;Fatica et al.,2021).Since the issuance of the Guidelines for the Issuance of Green Bonds in 2015,China’s green bond market has developed rapidly.By the end of 2021,China has issued 327 billion US dollars of labeled green bonds in domestic and overseas markets,ranking the second largest issuer of green bonds and becoming the main force in the development of the global green bond market.The Guiding Opinions of the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Science and Technology on the Construction of a Market-oriented Green Technology Innovation System pointed out that "with the establishment and improvement of China’s green and low-carbon circular development economic system,green technology innovation has increasingly become an important driving force for green development,and an important support for the fight against pollution,promoting the construction of ecological civilization,and promoting high-quality development." Enterprises are the core subjects of green innovation,Obviously,the focus of promoting the green transformation of the economy and achieving the "double carbon" goal is to promote high-quality green innovation of enterprises.So,can the development of China’s green bond market promote high-quality green innovation of enterprises,and then promote the realization of the "double carbon" goal? What is the mechanism behind it? The answers to these questions determine the current health and development quality of China’s green bond market.Focusing on the above issues,the article follows the research idea of "raising questions → theoretical analysis → empirical test → result discussion".First,it sorts out the connotation,policies and relevant documents of green bonds,and makes in-depth analysis of the development status and existing problems of China’s green bond market.On this basis,it puts forward the research questions of this article.Secondly,based on the information asymmetry theory and signal theory,this paper studies the impact of the development of China’s green bond market on the green technology innovation of enterprises,and further tests the spillover effect and environmental benefits of green bonds,so as to evaluate the development quality of China’s green bond market.Then,according to the two types of attributes,the paper studies the mechanism of green bonds promoting green technology innovation of enterprises,and further discusses the role of "financial" and "green" attributes in the promotion effect of green bond innovation,reveals the endogenous motivation of enterprises to choose to issue green bonds,and finds the focus of the healthy development of the green bond market.Finally,according to the function path,explore the guarantee mechanism of green bonds to promote green technology innovation of enterprises,explain the research results in combination with the actual development of China’s green bond market,and put forward corresponding policy recommendations.The main research conclusions are as follows:First,the empirical test conclusion of green bonds promoting green technology innovation of enterprises:(1)The issuance of green bonds can significantly promote the quantity and quality of green technology innovation of enterprises.Specifically,after the issuance of green bonds,the total number of green patent applications,the number of green invention patent applications and the number of green patent citations of enterprises have significantly increased,and the role of green bonds in promoting green innovation of enterprises has dynamic sustainability.(2)The heterogeneity test found that when the issuer is the equipment manufacturing industry,the ESG good performance enterprise or the repeated bond issuing enterprise,the green bond has a more significant role in promoting the green technology innovation of enterprises.(3)The spillover effect test results show that the issuance of green bonds by enterprises can significantly promote the quantity and quality of green technology innovation of peer companies.(4)The results of the economic consequence test show that the green innovation behavior promoted by green bonds can not only improve the environmental performance of enterprises,but also generate economic value within enterprises.Specifically,the green technology innovation promoted by green bonds can improve the probability of enterprises obtaining environmental recognition or other positive evaluations,and help enterprises successfully pass ISO14001 certification and obtain higher environmental responsibility scores;It is conducive to improving the total factor productivity and the return on total assets of enterprises.The above results show that from the perspective of green innovation,China’s green bond market has played a positive role in promoting the low-carbon circular development of the economy and helping to achieve the goal of "double carbon".The issuance of green bonds by enterprises is "true green" rather than "washing green".Second,the test conclusion of the mechanism of green bonds promoting green technology innovation of enterprises:(1)The test result of the intermediary effect shows that green bonds can alleviate the financing constraints of enterprises,reduce the cost of capital,and optimize the capital term structure,so as to alleviate the problems of financing difficulties,financing costs and "short debt and long investment" term mismatch of green technology innovation,and enhance the management’s willingness to carry out green technology innovation,And then promote green technology innovation of enterprises.(2)After investigating the role of the "financial" and "green" attributes of green bonds,it is found that(1)there is no evidence that the promotion of green bonds on green innovation of enterprises is affected by the scale of funds raised,the issuing rate and the issuing period.(2)Although the essence of "real green" bonds is the same as that of "labeled green" bonds(the green bonds studied in the article specifically refer to "labeled green" bonds),because the "green" attribute of "real green" bonds is not obvious,the article does not find that "real green" bonds have any effect on the green technology innovation of enterprises.(3)After enterprises issue green bonds,their institutional shareholding ratio,new bank loans and government subsidies have increased significantly,indicating that green bonds can guide social capital,bank capital and government capital to flow into enterprises;At the same time,the paper also found that the effect of "real green" bonds on attracting investment was not obvious,indicating that the "green" attribute of green bonds played a signal role.(4)The higher the quality of green information disclosure of green bonds,the more significant its role in promoting green innovation;Moreover,the bonds that have passed the third-party green certification have more obvious promotion effect on green technology innovation.Both green information disclosure and green certification are important manifestations of the "green" attribute of green bonds.Based on the above results,the article believes that the impact of green bonds on enterprises’ green technological innovation is mainly caused by the "green" attribute,and no "financial" attribute is found to play a role.This conclusion is consistent with Wen et al.(2011)and Li et al.(2021): High risk and long cycle make enterprise innovation mostly face financing constraints(Xia and Le,2021).Relationship debt such as venture capital and bank loans are the main forces to support and drive enterprise innovation(Song et al.,2021;David et al.,2008).Trading debt such as bonds is difficult to play the governance effect of debt due to the dispersion of creditor’s rights,so it will not have a significant impact on enterprise innovation.Third,the test conclusion of the guarantee mechanism of green bonds to promote green technological innovation of enterprises:(1)The test of the special mechanism of raised funds found that(1)the proportion of raised funds used for green projects can significantly affect the effect of green bonds on attracting investment;(2)The higher the proportion of raised funds used for green projects,the more significant the role of green bonds in promoting green technological innovation of enterprises.(2)The inspection of the green information disclosure mechanism found that:(1)the quality of green information disclosure significantly affected the investment attraction of green bonds;(2)The higher the quality of green information disclosure,the stronger the role of green bonds in promoting green innovation of enterprises;(3)The guidance of the Inter-bank Bond Market Dealers Association on green information disclosure is more specific and strict,so the quality of green information disclosure of green bonds regulated by the Dealers Association is higher,and the promotion effect of green technology innovation of enterprises is also more significant.(3)The third party certification mechanism was tested and found that(1)the green bonds certified by the third party have a stronger role in promoting the green innovation of enterprises,indicating that the green "credit enhancement" effect of the third party certification on the green bonds has been recognized by the market;(2)Green bonds that continue to obtain third-party certification have a more significant promotion effect on green innovation of enterprises;(3)There is no evidence to show that the reputation of third-party certification institutions has a significant impact on the innovation promotion of green bonds;(4)The quality of third-party certification report does not affect the innovation promotion effect of green bonds;(5)It is not found that the third-party certification results significantly affect the promotion of green bonds on green innovation of enterprises.The above research shows that the specificity of green bonds,green information disclosure and third-party green certification can all promote the green innovation of green bonds,which is an important mechanism to maintain the "green" attribute of green bonds and ensure the healthy and orderly development of China’s green bond market.However,due to the late start of China’s green bond market,various systems are still imperfect,As a result,the protection role of these mechanisms for the "green" attribute has not yet been fully released,mainly as follows:(1)The proportion of green bond raised funds for green projects in China is not high,although the "China Green Bond Principles" issued by the Green Bond Standards Committee in July 2022 clearly increases the proportion of green bond raised funds for green projects to 100%,but under the multi-supervision mode,It is difficult to unify the standard of green bonds.(2)The information disclosure mechanism of green bonds in China is not perfect,and there are problems such as non-uniform,inadequate and non-standard information disclosure,which leads to the low quality of green information disclosure,weakens the promotion effect of green bonds on green technology innovation of enterprises,and hinders the healthy development of the green bond market.(3)The third-party certification market of green bonds in China is still at the initial stage of exploration,lacking a unified certification method system and certification report specification guidance.The types of certification agencies are diverse,the level of certification is uneven,the quality of certification reports is different,the certification results are not comparable,and the rights and responsibilities of certification agencies are not equal,which leads to the difficulty for information users to identify the level of certification agencies,and cannot compare the differences between certification reports and certification results,Therefore,the content of third-party certification information is reduced,and the role of "gatekeeper" in the green bond market cannot be fully played.Based on the above conclusions,the article suggests that:(1)gradually expand the scale of green bond issuance.We can start from the issuer and the investor.On the one hand,we can use the policy dividend to induce the power of enterprises to issue green bonds,and at the same time publicize and maintain the signal role of green bonds,so as to promote the endogenous power of enterprises to issue green bonds;On the other hand,subsidies,tax incentives,innovative green bond varieties and other ways to improve the enthusiasm of investors.(2)Improve the specificity of raised funds.It is suggested that all regulatory departments should respond to the call of the Green Standards Committee and increase the proportion of green bond funds raised for green projects to 100%.In addition,in view of the difficulty in unifying various standards of green bonds caused by China’s long supervision mechanism,this paper proposes to improve the appeal of the Green Standards Committee and give it the important task of unifying and coordinating the green bond market.(3)Improve the green information disclosure mechanism.The first is to unify the green information disclosure standards,the second is to refine the green information disclosure requirements,the third is to standardize the green information disclosure platform,and the fourth is to clarify the green information disclosure punishment mechanism.(4)Standardize the third-party certification market.The first is to improve the third-party certification requirements,the second is to refine the third-party certification behavior guidance,and the third is to strengthen the third-party certification market supervision.The main contributions of the paper are as follows:(1)From the perspective of green bonds,try to deconstruct the impact path of green finance on the green behavior of physical enterprises,open the transmission black box of financial support for economic sustainable development,and provide evidence and experience for the idea of market-oriented means to promote ecological sustainable development.(2)Enrich and expand the relevant research perspective of green bonds.Most of the previous research on green bonds focused on its stock market reaction and issue pricing.On the basis of in-depth analysis of the development status of China’s green bond market,this article focuses on green technology innovation,and discusses the path and influencing factors of green bonds to achieve environmental benefits,It provides theoretical support and practical reference for China’s strategic measures of "building a green financial system" and the development goal of "reaching the peak of carbon and achieving carbon neutrality".(3)It has expanded and deepened the research depth of enterprises’ "green" behavior.In the past,the research on "washing green" behavior was mainly based on the perspective of environmental performance.However,there are various ways to achieve environmental performance,including terminal governance,equipment renewal,green innovation,etc.In contrast,green technology innovation has the largest investment and the highest risk,but it can also achieve the effect of taking drastic measures to solve the problem of environmental pollution prevention and control fundamentally.Therefore,the article infers whether the green bond is "washing green" or "true green" from a new perspective of green technology innovation,providing a basis for judging the development quality and health of China’s green bond market. |
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