An Investigation Of The Current Situation And Driving Forces Of Green Investment Of Listed Companies

This paper examines the current situation and driving forces of the environmental investment of listed companies.Using a sample of China's A-share listed companies during 2011 to 2015,the study adopted a series of statistical techniques to analysis the impact of various factors,particularly corporate Carbon Management Systems(CMS)on environmental and green investment.The study focuses on corporate green investment,which is an essential component of environmental investment that plays an important role for the future energy conservation and greenhouse gas(GHG)emission reduction.The results of descriptive statistical analysis show that the disclosure of environmental investment of listed companies is recently increasing,though overall the degree of transparency level is still low,especially there is a lack of green investment information disclosed.Both environmental and green investment expenditure of the listed companies in our sample is on the rise.Furthermore,those companies who belong to heavily polluting industries tend to invest more and companies operating in economically developed and energy-developed provinces and areas appears to have higher level of environmental investment.Besides,state-owned enterprises show a stronger tendency for environmental investment than private firms.Finally,based on the empirical results,the paper concludes that the existence and quality of Carbon Management Systems significantly promote companies' environmental and green investment,especially for those in polluting-industries.In addition,this effect is more pronounced in the late stage of Carbon Management System.In sum,all these findings offered fresh empirical evidence and insight on the issue that have not been documented in extant literature.The paper provides some theoretical contribution and has policy implication regarding environmental and green investment at firm level.For example,from the policy perspective,the findings may help to establish a unified framework for the disclosure of corporate carbon reduction performance and Carbon Management Systems.Meanwhile,the results of the paper can be useful for managers to improve their CMS and achieve carbon control targets.The findings might assist external users to make decisions about the environmental investment and its consequences of a company.