External Climate Information Pressure and Corporate ESG Performance: How Public Climate Risk Attention Shapes Sustainability Strategy

ABSTRACT Against the background of escalating global climate risks and deepening the sustainable development agenda, the public is paying increasing attention to climate change, and the impact on corporate environmental behavior through channels such as information search and public discourse is increasing. This study employs panel data from Chinese non‐financial A‐share listed companies between 2011 and 2023, utilizing a multidimensional fixed‐effects model to examine the impact of public climate risk attention on corporate ESG performance. Empirical findings reveal that heightened public climate risk attention significantly improves corporate ESG performance, underscoring the growing role of informal institutional pressures as drivers of sustainable corporate governance. This catalytic effect is moderated by three key organizational characteristics: female executive representation, managerial ability, and political connections, which respectively enhance the governance role of public attention by shaping the firm's risk perception capabilities, resource integration capabilities, and institutional adaptation capabilities. Heterogeneity tests reveal that the impact of public attention on corporate environmental behavior is more pronounced in non‐state‐owned enterprises, firms in eastern regions, and companies in competitive industries, indicating that this influence is highly contingent on market and institutional environments. Our findings contribute to a broader understanding of external drivers of ESG behavior and provide support for constructing green governance systems based on public participation.