Abstract
With the increasing problems of global warming, ecological damage, and excessive consumption of resources, a greater number of countries are focusing on corporate carbon performance and carbon emissions. Enterprises can save energy and reduce emissions through green innovation, which will improve the efficiency of carbon use and contribute to higher levels of corporate carbon performance. Meanwhile, effective corporate governance can improve enterprise performance, while internal governance systems can affect enterprise carbon performance. This study aims to reveal how the green innovation affect carbon performance of enterprises and the role of internal governance. So this study utilizes the data of China's A-share listed manufacturing companies from 2010 to 2020 to examine the impact of green innovation on corporate carbon performance through a fixed-effects model, and to examine the impact of corporate internal governance structure on green innovation and carbon performance through a moderating-effects model. The data used in this study are mainly from China Securities Market and Accounting Research Database (CSMAR) and China Research Data Service Platform (CNRDS), and the robustness test is conducted by replacing the independent variables using the 2sls method. The findings indicate that green innovation has a significant contribution to enterprise performance on carbon. Ownership concentration and executive political connections negatively moderated the relationship between green innovation and carbon performance. Director compensation positively moderates the relationship between green innovation and carbon performance. This research provides a theoretical groundwork for future studies on green innovation and carbon performance, and its findings are instructive for both the introduction of government policies and the restructuring of internal corporate governance.