Climate Change Pressure: Enhancing or Diminishing Corporate ESG Performance?

ABSTRACT This study employs resource conservation theory as the theoretical framework and empirically examines the effect of climate change pressure on corporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and its underlying mechanisms using data from 3562 A‐share listed companies in China from 2008 to 2023. First, climate change pressure exerts an inverted U‐shaped effect on corporate ESG performance. On the one side of the inflection point, rising climate change pressure improves ESG performance; on the other side, further increases in pressure lead to a decline in ESG performance. Second, climate change pressure exerts a positive U‐shaped effect on corporate agency costs, which, in turn, adversely affects ESG performance, ultimately resulting in an inverted U‐shaped effect of climate change pressure on corporate ESG. Third, climate change pressure exerts an inverted U‐shaped effect on corporate debt financing levels, which, in turn, positively affects corporate ESG performance, thereby resulting in an inverted U‐shaped effect of climate change pressure on corporate ESG performance. Accordingly, governments should adopt a gradual approach when advancing carbon reduction initiatives to avoid excessive forces that could stifle ESG performance and prove counterproductive.