Green Fund Shareholding and Corporate Carbon Performance: An Empirical Analysis Based on Chinese A-Share Listed Companies

Against the global low-carbon transition, China, as one of the world’s major carbon emitters, relies on green finance to drive corporate carbon reduction. However, existing research has paid limited attention to green funds, an important component of China’s green finance system, leaving their role in shaping corporate carbon performance understudied. This study addresses this gap by exploring how green fund shareholding affects corporate carbon performance. Using data of Chinese A-share listed companies from 2008 to 2022, this work employed baseline regression, robustness checks, mediation analysis, and heterogeneity tests. Key findings include: green fund shareholding is associated with significant improvements in corporate carbon performance; green technology innovation plays a partial mediating role in this relationship; external supervision positively moderates the link between green fund shareholding and corporate carbon performance; and the positive effect tends to be more pronounced for firms with higher green fund ownership and net value ratios. This study helps fill the gap of ignoring investor heterogeneity in prior related research. It also suggests that regulators could optimize information disclosure and supervision for green funds, while enterprises may strengthen collaboration with green funds, providing support for China’s green finance development and corporate low-carbon transition.