Abstract:

Backgrounds & Motivations: The financial gap in addressing biodiversity loss is considerable, highlighting the need for the involvement of enterprises and financial institutions in biodiversity protection to provide necessary funding for biodiversity risk management. However, the information regarding to biodiversity in reports from Chinese listed enterprises remains limited, often lacking substance and credibility. It is imperative for enterprises to establish a biodiversity information disclosure mechanism that signals low biodiversity risk to financial and capital markets, thereby enhancing their financing capabilities and levels.

Methods: This study calculates the biodiversity information disclosure index for Chinese enterprises based on an analysis of 11,867 enterprise social responsibility and environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports from 1,714 listed enterprises between 2006 and 2022, utilizing internet crawling technology for data collection. Employing quantitative analysis methods, the research examines the current status and primary issues related to biodiversity disclosure, ultimately constructing an econometric model to explore the financing effects of biodiversity information disclosure from the perspectives of financing constraints, costs, and outcomes.

Results: The findings indicate a continuous increase in both the number and proportion of enterprises disclosing biodiversity information in China, demonstrating a stable growth trend with modest annual increases. However, challenges persist, including low disclosure quality, heightened industry polarization, and significant heterogeneity among enterprise types. Furthermore, biodiversity information disclosure exhibits significant effects on financing. Specifically, each increasing unit in enterprise biodiversity information disclosure can effectively reduce enterprise financing constraints by 2.02% to 5.07%, lower the cost of enterprise debt financing by 2.51% to 2.78%, lower the cost of enterprise equity financing by 1.55% to 1.83%, and facilitate adjustments to the enterprise financing structure, thereby decreasing (increasing) the proportion of debt (equity) in financing by 2.19%.

Policy Implications & Contributions: In light of these findings, policy recommendations are proposed in the study, including the implementation of financing incentive mechanisms, the establishment of standardized disclosure protocols, the monetization of biodiversity value, and an emphasis on disclosure trends among non-key industries. These recommendations are designed to enhance enterprise engagement in biodiversity protection and to mobilize enterprise resources towards the promotion of biodiversity-friendly practices within industry development.

Key words: biodiversity, information disclosure, disclosure index construction, disclosure status analysis, financing effects