Motivated by the rising consensus that corporate engagement in climate change actions holds the key for society's transition into environmentally resilient economy, the study examines whether a firm's commitment to climate change action and its carbon risk exposure shape the firm's debt financing policy. Based on insights drawn from signaling, corporate reputation, and agency theories, we develop models that link corporate commitment to climate change actions and a firm's carbon risk exposure with its debt financing decisions. Using data drawn from S&P 500 companies, for years 2015 to 2019, we find a robust evidence that firms that engage in higher levels of commitment to climate change actions issue a higher proportion of debt with longer terms to maturity, even after controlling for their carbon risk exposure. However, we do not find a robust evidence corroborating an association between firms' carbon risk exposure and their debt financing policy. These findings are consistent with arguments that high-commitment firms enjoy positive reputation, better credit rating, and reduced agency and information asymmetry costs, allowing them to gain easier access to long-term debt markets.

中文翻译：

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公司对气候变化行动、碳风险敞口和公司债务融资政策的承诺

由于越来越多的共识认为企业参与气候变化行动是社会向具有环境弹性的经济转型的关键，该研究调查了公司对气候变化行动的承诺及其碳风险敞口是否影响了公司的债务融资政策。基于从信号、企业声誉和代理理论中得出的见解，我们开发了将企业对气候变化行动的承诺以及公司的碳风险敞口与其债务融资决策联系起来的模型。使用标准普尔 500 指数公司 2015 年至 2019 年的数据，我们发现一个有力的证据表明，对气候变化行动做出更高承诺的公司发行的债务比例更高，到期期限更长，即使在控制碳排放之后风险暴露。然而，我们没有找到强有力的证据来证实企业的碳风险敞口与其债务融资政策之间存在关联。这些发现与以下论点一致，即高承诺的公司享有良好的声誉、更好的信用评级以及降低的代理和信息不对称成本，使它们更容易进入长期债务市场。