The impact of green credit policies on debt financing for heavily polluting enterprises

Abstract

On October 16, 2022, in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China’s dual carbon goal was once again emphasized, and China would actively and steadily promote carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. This paper selects the heavy polluting enterprises of A-share listed companies(2007-2021) as the research samples, using the non-heavy polluting enterprises as the control group, and applying the double difference model to explore the effect of green credit policy on the debt financing scale and debt financing cost of heavy polluting enterprises. Empirical tests show that, on the one hand, the promulgation of the Green Credit Guidelines significantly reduces the financing scale of heavily polluting enterprises and increases the financing cost of their liabilities. On the other hand, compared with non-stateowned enterprises, the green credit policy has a greater impact on the financing cost of state-owned enterprises’ liabilities.