Does Climate Finance Improve Corporate Resilience? Evidence from Manufacturing Firms in Emerging Economies

Climate change and the transition toward low-carbon development have exposed manufacturing firms in Southeast Asia to increasing physical and transition risks, making corporate resilience a critical concern for sustainable economic growth. Although climate finance is widely expected to facilitate green transformation and risk mitigation, its effectiveness in strengthening corporate resilience remains underexplored in the existing literature. Drawing on resource dependence theory, risk buffering theory, and innovation compensation theory, this study develops a multidimensional corporate resilience index and employs a two-way fixed-effects model using an unbalanced panel dataset of listed manufacturing firms from six Southeast Asian economies over the period 2012 to 2024. The empirical results demonstrate that climate finance significantly enhances corporate resilience. Mechanism analysis reveals that this positive effect operates through three primary channels: easing financing limitations, promoting green technological innovation, and accelerating low-carbon operational transformation. Heterogeneity analysis further indicates that the resilience-enhancing effects of climate finance are more pronounced for heavy-polluting firms, enterprises with greater climate risk exposure, and firms operating in countries with stricter environmental policies. Overall, this study concludes that climate finance provides both short-term risk buffering and long-term resilience enhancement, offering valuable micro-level evidence on its role in supporting sustainable manufacturing development in emerging economies across Southeast Asia.