This study investigates how a firm's climate change risk (FCCR) and financial flexibility (FIFL) affect its value and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance. We use data from publicly listed US firms for 2012–2021. We employed four estimation methods: bootstrap quantile regression, feasible generalised least squares, a generalised method of moments, and fixed effects with Driscoll-Kraay standard errors. Our main findings indicate that climate change risk has a negative effect on firm value and a positive effect on ESG performance and that financial flexibility moderates these effects by reducing risk and enhancing value. These results are robust against alternative measures and estimation techniques. Our study provides novel insights into the influence of climate risk and financial flexibility on firm value and ESG performance. We also discuss the implications of our results for academics, practitioners, and policymakers.

本研究调查了公司的气候变化风险 (FCCR) 和财务灵活性 (FIFL) 如何影响其价值以及环境、社会和治理 (ESG) 绩效。我们使用美国上市公司 2012 年至 2021 年的数据。我们采用了四种估计方法：自举分位数回归、可行广义最小二乘法、广义矩方法以及具有 Driscoll-Kraay 标准误差的固定效应。我们的主要研究结果表明，气候变化风险对公司价值产生负面影响，对 ESG 绩效产生积极影响，而财务灵活性通过降低风险和提高价值来缓和这些影响。这些结果对于替代措施和估计技术来说是稳健的。我们的研究为气候风险和财务灵活性对公司价值和 ESG 绩效的影响提供了新颖的见解。我们还讨论了我们的研究结果对学者、从业者和政策制定者的影响。