Urgency and severity of climate change impacts have become increasingly prominent, making the enhancement of corporate climate risk disclosure (CCRD) a shared demand among regulators, investors, and the general public. From the perspective of irrational behavioral traits, this paper utilizes a sample of A-share-listed companies in China from 2008 to 2022 to empirically examine the impact of executives’ overseas experiences on CCRD and its underlying mechanisms. To measure firm-level climate risk disclosure, we employ machine learning-based textual analysis techniques and match the constructed disclosure indicators with firms’ financial data. The results demonstrate that executives with overseas experience significantly enhance the level of CCRD, and this effect remains consistent after a series of robustness tests. This effect operates through the dual paths of “climate attention allocation enhancement” and “management myopia mitigation”. Moreover, the positive impact of overseas experience is more pronounced among firms in climate-sensitive industries and regions with lower climate awareness. A further analysis of executive overseas experience characteristics shows that executives with experience in developed economies and those with international educational backgrounds exhibit a stronger influence in promoting CCRD. Additionally, an investigation into the economic consequences demonstrates that executives with overseas experiences not only improve firms’ ESG performances but also help reduce ESG rating discrepancies, reinforcing the beneficial role of overseas exposure in corporate governance. The findings not only provided micro-level empirical evidence for the effectiveness of talent recruitment policies in emerging economies but also yielded critical policy implications for regulatory bodies to refine climate disclosure frameworks and enable enterprises to leverage opportunities in low-carbon transition.

So far, the existing literature has examined the impact of climate policy uncertainty (CPU) on the green innovation (GI) of listed firms. However, there is still a lack of research on how climate policy uncertainty affects regional innovation compared to its impact at the firm level. In fact, green innovation is not solely driven by listed firms. Unlisted firms, government, and government-affiliated scientific research institutions also play a crucial role in the research, development, and promotion of green technologies. This paper examines the impact of climate policy uncertainty on green innovation based on panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2013 to 2021 using a fixed effects model. The study finds that moderate climate policy uncertainty promotes regional green innovation. However, further analysis reveals that when a region’s climate policy uncertainty is excessively high, it instead hinders green innovation. The mechanism analysis shows that climate policy uncertainty encourages government investment in innovation while constraining firms’ investment in innovation. Additionally, this paper finds that regional financial development can alleviate firms’ financing constraints, thereby mitigating the negative impact of climate policy uncertainty on firms. Financial development enhances the role of climate policy uncertainty in promoting regional green innovation. The findings of this paper provide a basis for the government if it designates climate policies to promote the realization of green innovation. At the same time, this study also puts forward policy recommendations to improve financial policies and strengthen government support in order to promote the process of green technology research and development, marketization, and industrialization, and to promote the green transformation and sustainable development of China’s economy.

Drawing on a panel dataset of 27,972 firm-year observations from Chinese A-share listed companies spanning 2009 to 2022, this study employs fixed-effects models to examine the nonlinear relationship between firm-level climate policy uncertainty (FCPU) and corporate green governance expenditure (GGE). The results reveal a robust inverted U-shaped pattern: moderate levels of FCPU encourage firms to increase GGE, while excessive uncertainty discourages it. Financing constraints mediate this relationship; specifically, FCPU exhibits a U-shaped impact on financing constraints, initially easing and then tightening them. Older top management teams accelerate the GGE downturn, while government environmental expenditure delays it, acting as a buffer. Heterogeneity analyses reveal the inverted U-shaped effect is more pronounced for non-polluting firms and state-owned enterprises (SOEs). This study highlights the complex dynamics of FCPU on corporate green behavior, underscoring the importance of climate policy stability and transparency for advancing corporate environmental engagement in China.

This paper explores the relationship between economic growth and environmental regulation using panel data for 30 provinces in China from 2009–2021 using the fixed effects model and the threshold model. First, the baseline regression results show that market-based environmental regulation promotes economic growth. However, command-and-control environmental regulation in China can not promote China’s economic growth. Second, further research has shown that environmental regulation’s role in promoting the economy is constrained by the intensity of environmental regulation. Market-based environmental regulation is only able to promote economic growth when the intensity is low. If the intensity of market-based environmental regulation is too high, market-based environmental regulation, on the contrary, can not promote economic growth. Third, The impact of market-based environmental regulation on economic growth also is found to be constrained by the level of economic development: market-based environmental regulation does not promote economic growth when the economy is less developed. It is only when the economy has reached a high level that market-based environmental regulation will contribute to economic growth. Finally, this paper finds that financial development and market-based environmental regulation can synergize to promote economic growth.

The relationship between environmental regulation and regional innovation has been disputed. This paper analyzes data at the provincial level in China between 2009 and 2020 using a fixed-effects model to investigate the relationship between environmental regulation and innovation. The baseline regression results suggest that market-based environmental regulatory instruments effectively promote regional innovation, while command-and-control environmental regulatory instruments hinder regional innovation. However, the impact of environmental regulation exhibits heterogeneity and non-linearity. The implementation of overly strict command-and-control environmental regulatory instruments hinders innovation, while the implementation of low-intensity command-and-control environmental regulatory instruments instead promotes innovation. In economically developed provinces, market-based environmental regulation promotes innovation, while in less economically developed provinces, market-based environmental regulation inhibits innovation instead. Further analysis from a pollution reduction perspective shows that environmental regulations that mitigate air pollution significantly promote regional innovation levels. This study not only enriches theoretical discourse but also offers practical policy recommendations for balancing environmental governance and innovation development in China.