Carbon Action Index of China’s Listed Companies

In order to track the efforts and effectiveness of listed companies’ carbon actions, and to reveal the status of carbon reduction in companies’ business decision-making, 44,502 companies’ annual reports from 2001 to 2020 were analyzed in this paper, using text mining method. The Carbon Action Index of China’s Listed Companies (CAIC) was constructed, which includes four dimensions: structural optimization, energy conservation and efficiency improvement, carbon sink and sequestration, and management guarantees. It is found that the carbon actions index has continued to increase in the past 20 years and is closely related to the national carbon policy. Energy conservation and efficiency improvement actions were carried out at the earliest, and management guarantee actions increased sharply in 2020. The power generation industry and high-energy-consuming industries have taken carbon actions more actively, and state-owned enterprises have played a leading role. The Carbon Action Index reveals the speed, strength and manner of companies’ response to national policy and the trend of the era, and provides a reference for relevant departments to further improve the incentive and constraint mechanism for enterprise carbon actions.