The nexus of economic growth, energy prices, climate policy uncertainty (CPU), and digitalization on ESG performance in the USA

IF 4 3区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Climate Services Pub Date : 2025-04-01 DOI:10.1016/j.cliser.2025.100572

Cem Işık , Serdar Ongan , Hasibul Islam , Jiale Yan , Rafael Alvarado , Munir Ahmad

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This study examines the impact of economic growth, energy prices, digitalization, and climate policy uncertainty—key macroeconomic, technological, and political factors—on ESG performance in the U.S. within a comprehensive sustainability framework to mitigate climate change. The study reveals how these variables impact different levels of ESG performance using Quantile and Quantile-on-Quantile analyses. Findings show that economic growth positively impacts ESG performance. This can be interpreted as the economy incentivizing U.S. companies to adopt and enhance their ESG practices. No significant impact of climate policy uncertainty was found. This result can be interpreted as companies mitigating the effects of climate policy uncertainty on ESG through hedging and risk management strategies. The positive relationship between energy prices and ESG indicates that higher energy costs may improve ESG performance. This can be explained by the fact that sectors facing high energy prices may invest more in sustainable practices, such as adopting renewable energy. Therefore, policymakers should encourage businesses to take individual and collective action to adopt behavior against climate change. The negative impact of digitalization on ESG performance can be explained by the rapid pace of technological change, leading business companies to prioritize profitability over ESG considerations. This result may refer to the Corporate Sustainability Theory.¹ Therefore, businesses should integrate digitalization into climate strategies through regulatory measures and enhanced corporate reporting.

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美国经济增长、能源价格、气候政策不确定性（CPU）和数字化对ESG绩效的影响

本研究考察了经济增长、能源价格、数字化和气候政策不确定性（关键的宏观经济、技术和政治因素）在缓解气候变化的综合可持续性框架下对美国ESG绩效的影响。该研究通过分位数分析和分位数对分位数分析揭示了这些变量如何影响不同水平的ESG绩效。研究结果表明，经济增长对企业ESG绩效有正向影响。这可以解释为经济激励美国公司采用和加强其ESG实践。没有发现气候政策不确定性的显著影响。这一结果可以解释为企业通过对冲和风险管理策略减轻了气候政策不确定性对ESG的影响。能源价格与ESG之间的正相关关系表明，较高的能源成本可能会改善ESG绩效。这可以用这样一个事实来解释，即面临高能源价格的部门可能会更多地投资于可持续实践，例如采用可再生能源。因此，政策制定者应鼓励企业采取个人和集体行动，采取应对气候变化的行动。数字化对ESG绩效的负面影响可以用技术变革的快速步伐来解释，这导致商业公司将盈利能力置于ESG考虑之上。因此，企业应通过监管措施和加强公司报告，将数字化融入气候战略。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Climate Services Multiple-

CiteScore

5.30

自引率

15.60%

发文量

期刊介绍： The journal Climate Services publishes research with a focus on science-based and user-specific climate information underpinning climate services, ultimately to assist society to adapt to climate change. Climate Services brings science and practice closer together. The journal addresses both researchers in the field of climate service research, and stakeholders and practitioners interested in or already applying climate services. It serves as a means of communication, dialogue and exchange between researchers and stakeholders. Climate services pioneers novel research areas that directly refer to how climate information can be applied in methodologies and tools for adaptation to climate change. It publishes best practice examples, case studies as well as theories, methods and data analysis with a clear connection to climate services. The focus of the published work is often multi-disciplinary, case-specific, tailored to specific sectors and strongly application-oriented. To offer a suitable outlet for such studies, Climate Services journal introduced a new section in the research article type. The research article contains a classical scientific part as well as a section with easily understandable practical implications for policy makers and practitioners. The journal''s focus is on the use and usability of climate information for adaptation purposes underpinning climate services.