Climate Risk and Corporate Low-Carbon Transition: A Perspective Based on Government Green Attention

With the intensification of global climate change, climate risk has become a systemic external shock faced by enterprises, profoundly affecting their strategic choices and transformation behaviors. Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)—in particular, SDG 7 (affordable and clean energy), SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure), SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities), and SDG 13 (climate action)—requires enterprises, as microeconomic agents, to undergo fundamental low-carbon transformation. Against the backdrop of continued advancement of the “dual carbon” targets and government green governance, whether there is a link between climate risk and enterprises’ low-carbon transformation, and through which pathways this occurs, have become important questions in urgent need of answers. This study uses listed companies on China’s A-share market from 2011 to 2023 as research samples to empirically examine the relationship between climate risk and enterprises’ low-carbon transformation and its possible mechanisms. The study finds a significant positive association between climate risk and low-carbon transformation at the enterprise level, manifested as a relative decline in carbon emission intensity. Mechanism analysis shows that mitigating information asymmetry and promoting digital transformation may serve as important channels for this positive association; government green attention may strengthen the aforementioned relationship. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the positive association is more pronounced among samples in eastern China, heavily polluting industries, and non-state-owned enterprises. These findings broaden the research perspective on the microeconomic consequences of climate risk and the driving factors of low-carbon transformation in enterprises. They also offer practical insights for governments to improve climate governance systems and guide enterprises in seizing transformation opportunities. At the same time, they provide practical implications for enterprises to link climate response with the broader sustainable development agenda, and offer policy-makers and corporate managers feasible pathways for turning climate risk awareness into measurable progress in SDG 13 (climate action) and SDG 9 (industry, innovation, and infrastructure).