ESG and the High-quality Development of China′s Listed Companies Under the Dual Carbon Goal: An Empirical Analysis Based on ESG "101" Framework

As a comprehensive matrix indicator system for assessing the environmental sustainability, social value and governance ability of enterprises, ESG is an important indicator for identifying the high-quality development of enterprises, which is consistent with the background of China′ s economy turning to high-quality development and the goal of implementing the new development concept. From the perspective of ESG′s influence mechanism, there are external influence mechanisms-government governance and capital market participation, as well as internal influence mechanisms—the relationship between E, S and G. Therefore, the "101" theoretical analysis framework of ESG can be constructed to clarify the relationship between ESG and the high-quality development of listed companies. Based on this theoretical framework, the empirical test on the ESG performance and stock return of listed companies from the two aspects of the impact of government departments and the role of the capital market itself shows that listed companies that disclose ESG related information according to regulatory requirements are more concerned by investors, and the ESG score and its components environmental "e" and social responsibility "s" scores can significantly and positively affect the stock return. Therefore, the regulatory level has formulated a standardized ESG evaluation system to regulate the ESG information disclosure of listed companies, guide listed companies and financial institutions to form a "ESG performance ESG investment" cycle mechanism, promote the development of energy-saving, emission reduction and pollution reduction enterprises, while forcing high pollution, high energy consumption and high emission enterprises to carry out green transformation and innovation, give full play to the function of ESG to help the capital market implement the dual carbon goals, and achieve the high-quality development of listed companies.