The Impact of Climate Risk on Corporate Debt Financing Costs Under the Background of “Dual Carbon” Goals

In recent years, the operational environment of businesses has been significantly altered by the escalation of global warming, the rising frequency of extreme weather events, and the widespread enactment of climate-related laws. As a result, climate change has exerted varying degrees of impact on all walks of life. Governments around the world are accelerating the construction of a climate governance system to stabilize the global climate, and China’s proposal of the “Dual Carbon” goals has elevated climate risk management to a national strategic level. However, the current risk identification mechanism in the debt financing market has not yet fully adapted to the changes in climate risk, which has further increased the difficulty of corporate debt financing. Therefore, in order to objectively examine the impact of climate risk on corporate debt financing costs and investigate the unique transmission pathways of this impact, this paper chooses Chinese A-share listed businesses from 2015 to 2024 as research samples. The findings show that an increase in climate risk considerably boosts the cost of financing corporate debt; in particular, climate risk raises the cost of financing corporate debt by raising labor and operational risks. Furthermore, compared with enterprises with advanced digital transformation and robust environmental information disclosure practices, those lagging in digitalization and lacking adequate environmental transparency exhibit a more pronounced intensifying effect on the increase in corporate debt financing costs induced by climate risk. The research findings of this paper offer practical insights for enterprises navigating higher debt financing costs amid growing climate risk pressures.