The impact of green credit on green transformation of heavily polluting enterprises: Reverse forcing or forward pushing?

Promoting green transformation through green financial instruments has gradually become a necessary means for heavily polluting enterprises (HPEs) to promote sustainable development. This study matches the “Green Credit Statistical System” with the annual reports of China's A-share listed enterprises, identifies enterprises supported and unsupported by green credit policy (GCP) from HPEs. It uses panel data for 2009–2020 and DID model to examine the impact of GCP on enterprise transformation. The research results show that GCP significantly promotes the green transformation of HPEs. In green credit enterprises, increasing corporate bank loans, promoting technological innovation, and increasing environmental protection spending are the main influencing channels to positively promote enterprise transformation. In nongreen credit enterprises, restricting bank loans, improving financing constraints on enterprises, and increasing information disclosure are the main influencing channels to reverse force enterprise transformation. In addition, for green credit enterprises, policies are more significant in the energy and metal industries, regions with high degree of marketization and energy intensity. For nongreen credit enterprises, policies are more significant in the manufacturing industry, areas with high degree of environmental regulation intensity and marketization.