Adoption of renewable energy is one of the most important steps to cope with global warming and achieve sustainability. While its supply has seen a global boom, the adoption of renewable energy from the critical demand side faces clear challenges. This paper investigates firms’ use of renewable energy, paying special attention to factors in internal corporate governance (proxied by board characteristics) and also external governance (proxied by institutional environment). Based on 1,027 listed companies in 47 countries/regions, we show statistically significant evidence that both internal and external governance matter for firms’ adoption of renewable energy. We also find significant interactions between internal and external factors. Specifically, board duality and higher executive share reduce renewable energy adoption, strong external governance increases renewable energy adoption, and firms in common law systems tend to use less renewables. Our results are robust to different specifications, which allow us to tell an international demand side story to complement the narrative on supply.

采用可再生能源是应对全球变暖和实现可持续发展的最重要步骤之一。尽管其供应已出现全球繁荣，但从关键需求方面采用可再生能源仍面临明显的挑战。本文调查了企业对可再生能源的使用，特别注意内部公司治理（由董事会特征所代表）和外部治理（由制度环境所代表）中的因素。基于47个国家/地区的1,027家上市公司，我们显示出具有统计意义的证据，表明内部和外部治理都对公司采用可再生能源至关重要。我们还发现内部和外部因素之间存在显着的相互作用。具体来说，董事会的双重角色和更高的执行人员份额会减少可再生能源的采用，强大的外部治理提高了可再生能源的采用率，习惯法体系中的公司倾向于使用较少的可再生能源。我们的结果对于不同的规格是可靠的，这使我们能够讲一个国际需求方面的故事来补充关于供应的叙述。