Does Environmental Regulation Promote Corporate Green Innovation? Empirical Evidence from Chinese Carbon Capture Companies

Abstract

The proposal of the “double carbon” goal of “carbon peak, carbon neutralization” highlights the determination of China’s green and low-carbon development. Carbon capture is one of the essential ways to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and cope with climate change. Then, how to improve the green innovation capability of organizations and promote the transformation and upgrading of enterprises with green development is a practical problem that needs to be dealt with quickly. This paper uses multiple linear regression to investigate the impact of environmental regulation on corporate green innovation and explores the mediating effect of corporate environmental investment and the moderating effect of corporate digital transformation. The analysis results show that government environmental regulation can effectively enhance the green innovation of enterprises and environmental investments play an intermediary role. However, the development of environmental regulation in China is still relatively backward, and its positive incentive role needs to be further played. As a result, the government should strengthen environmental legislation while also accelerating system development, increasing corporate investment in environmental protection, and raising protection awareness among companies using digital network technology.