Impact of the environmental protection law on corporate biodiversity risk attention - An empirical analysis based on data of Chinese listed companies

• Explores how the Environmental Law influence corporate biodiversity risk attention. • Classify the sample into biodiversity risk-sensitive industries and non-biodiversity risk-sensitive industries. • Environmental law increases corporate attention to biodiversity risks by enhancing ESG performance and fostering executives' environmental awareness. • Environmental law exerts a stronger influence on the attention paid to biodiversity risks among state-owned enterprises and companies located in cities participating in carbon emissions trading pilot programs. China introduced the directive-based Environmental Protection Law (EPL) in 2015 to improve and protect the environment. This paper uses the data of Chinese listed companies from 2010 to 2023 to construct a difference-in-differences model and finds that the implementation of the EPL promotes biodiversity risk attention among enterprises in biodiversity-sensitive industries. Furthermore, ESG performance and executives' environmental awareness play a mediating effect in this relationship. The heterogeneity analysis reveals that the EPL has a more significant impact on the attention paid by state-owned enterprises and enterprises participating in the carbon emission rights trading pilot program to the biodiversity risk. This paper provides relevant evidence for further incorporating biodiversity risk into the enterprise assessment standards.