Editor’s introduction

Tunisia, and UK.These papers can mainly be categorized into 3 sub themes. Green Finance and Sustainable DevelopmentBased on data from 285 cities in China from 2014 to 2020, Xiao et al. (2024) shows that the Green Digital Finance (GDF) is conducive to achieving sustainable development goals through the effects of financial inclusion and energy transitions, which promote the transformation and upgrading of industrial structures.Xiaobao et al. (2024) reveals that the carbon emission trading pilot policy significantly improved inter-and intra-city green innovation cooperation through the upgrading effect of industrial structure and the coverage effect of digital finance compared with the non-pilot cities at the city level, based on data on 274 cities from 2008 to 2020.Liu et al. (2024) analyzes the governance of enterprises' Greenwashing behaviors (GWBs) in green finance products (GFPs) from the stakeholder perspective.By discussing the relationships among regulatory authorities, investors, and enterprises in detail, the formation mechanism of GWBs was revealed.Liu et al. (2024) takes the A-share listed enterprises in China from 2011 to 2020 as the subject and examines the impact, mechanism, and heterogeneity of corporate green bond issuance on Environmental responsibilities (ER).The empirical results indicate that Chinese enterprises' issuance of green bonds can encourage enterprises to improve ER.Imran et al. (2024) explores the complex relationships involving ecological footprints, energy use, carbon missions, governance efficiency, economic prosperity, and financial stability in South Asian nations spanning the period from 2000 to 2022. Financial Markets and Energy TransitionMa et al. ( 2024) uses unbalanced panel data on 3326 Chinese listed companies from 2014 to 2021 and investigates the impact of corporate environmental performance on China's excess stock returns.The results show that stocks of companies with better environmental performance earn significantly higher excess returns, indicating the existence of green returns in the Chinese stock market.Mazzarano (2024) investigates the link between energy indicators and Tobin's Quotient (TQ) in listed companies globally,