Climate Risk and Enterprise Performance -Micro-evidence from Chinese A-share listed companies

Abstract

Climate change has become the biggest challenge for human beings in the 21st century. Extreme climate risk not only causes a lot of direct economic losses but also affects the operation of a large number of micro-enterprises. In order to explore the impact of climate risk on business performance and its mechanism, based on the financial data of China's A-share listed companies from 2004 to 2018 and the meteorological disaster loss data of the province where the company is located, it is found that comprehensive meteorological disaster loss will significantly reduce the return on assets of enterprises, among which rainstorm (flood, landslide and debris flow) disasters, drought, gale, hail and lightning disasters are the most obvious. In addition, in the provinces affected by the typhoon, the return on corporate assets will also be greatly affected. Further analysis shows that the climate risks of enterprises with diversified businesses will be dispersed and enterprises with diversified businesses are less affected by meteorological disasters.