The Impact of Investors’ Green Attention on Corporate Carbon Emissions

This paper investigates the role of investors’ interests in green development of firms, i.e., investors’ green attention (IGA), in affecting corporate carbon emissions, using panel data of Chinese listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2022. The results show that investors’ green attention significantly reduces firms’ carbon emissions, and the effect remains robust under various specifications. Mechanism analysis reveals that this carbon-reducing effect is partially mediated by enhanced green innovation (GI), indicating that investor attention encourages firms to invest in environmentally friendly technologies. This study identifies the distinct governance role of capital market forces, provides rigorous causal evidence for the emission reduction effect of investors’ green attention through a quasi-natural experiment design, and offers actionable policy insights for advancing market-oriented environmental governance under China’s dual carbon goals (peak carbon and carbon neutrality).