중국 기업의 녹색채권 발행에 관한 연구: 고오염 기업을 중심으로

A Study on the Green Bond Issuance by Chinese Enterprises: Focused on Highly Polluting Enterprises

Purpose - The purpose of this study is investigate the green bond issuance behavior of Chinese companies and explore the key factors influencing the decision to issue green bonds. Focusing on highly polluting enterprises, we discuss whether green bonds can be an effective financing tool for the low-carbon transition of highly polluting enterprises based on the green bond issuance behavior and the factors behind the behavior. Design/methodology/approach - This study collected issuance records in the Chinese bond market from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2023, and used a Logit regression model to examine potential factors affecting Chinese corporate green bond issuance decisions. Findings - The empirical results of this paper show that all such factors as the pollution attribute, green preference, ownership concentration, firm size, debt-to-asset ratio (leverage), short-term solvency (liquidity), growth potential, bond issuance scale, and bond maturity are key factors influencing the issuer's choice between traditional bonds and green bonds. Despite the difficulties faced by highly polluting enterprises, including rising financing costs and blocked financing channels, they still tend to choose to issue traditional bonds instead of green bonds. Financial indicators such as leverage, liquidity, and growth potential are not significant in the regression analysis of the highly polluting enterprise group, indicating that they are not key factors influencing the decision of highly polluting enterprises to issue green bonds.The impact of the cost of bond is significant only for low-pollution enterprises, and this result is consistent with reality. In real-world situations, because the terms of the green bond issuance are strict, it is very difficult for highly polluting enterprises to find eligible projects, which would make it difficult to raise more transition funds through green bond financing. Therefore, in order to support the low-carbon transition of highly polluting enterprises, it is proposed to accelerate the construction of a transition finance system and actively promote transition finance products such as transition bonds and sustainability-linked bonds. Research implications or Originality - This study starts from the green bond issuance behavior of companies and explores the factors that affect the decision of companies to issue green bonds. Based on this, it reveals the limitations of green bonds in promoting the low-carbon transition of highly polluting companies. In order to support the low-carbon transition of highly polluting companies, this paper presents policy suggestions in two aspects: regulation and promotion of transition finance.