In response to China's national carbon neutrality goals, this study examines how corporate carbon emissions disclosure affects the financial performance of Chinese A-share listed companies. Leveraging artificial intelligence tools, including natural language processing, we analyzed emissions disclosures for 4,336 companies from 2017 to 2022. The research demonstrates that high-quality carbon disclosure positively impacts financial performance with higher stock returns, improved return on equity, increased Tobin's Q ratio, and reduced stock price volatility. Our findings underscore the emerging importance of carbon transparency in financial markets, highlighting how environmental reporting can serve as a strategic mechanism to create corporate value and adapt to climate change.
@article{arxiv.2508.17423,
title = {Carbon Disclosure Effect, Corporate Fundamentals, and Net-zero Emission Target: Evidence from China},
author = {Xiyuan Zhou and Xinlei Wang and Xiang Fei and Wenxuan Liu and Bai-Chen Xie and Junhua Zhao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2508.17423},
year = {2025}
}