Crude oil price uncertainty and corporate carbon emissions.

Abstract

Low-carbon transformation has become a key priority in China, as demonstrated in the implementation of the Carbon Peak, Carbon Neutralization policy, leading to increasing concern of environmental performance at the corporate level. This paper measures the carbon emission of 1,089 Chinese companies through the EIO-LCA-based approach. Then we examine the impacts of international crude oil price fluctuations and the corporate development level on carbon emissions of individual companies. Our results indicate that an increase in international crude oil price uncertainty could inhibit the company’s carbon emission. In parallel, we find that there might exist an environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) inverted U-shaped correlation between the company’s development level and its environmental performance. However, some exceptions to corporate carbon performance may emerge, resulting from specific corporate characteristics such as the state-owned nature and whether the firm is listed on the stock exchange. Our results could help companies optimize their internal carbon emission structure during the low-carbon transition process and contribute to effective policy regulations towards the target of carbon reduction.