Abstract: The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China called for efforts to “accelerate the green transformation of development mode, implement the comprehensive conservation strategy, and develop green and low-carbon industries”, which is a clear requirement for enterprises to develop in a green and low-carbon manner. Effectively driving the improvement of carbon emission performance through carbon risk avoidance has become an inevitable choice for enterprises to obtain green competitive advantages and realize low-carbon transformation. Based on signaling theory and organizational learning theory, this paper builds a theoretical model of carbon risk avoidance, green image and green competitive advantage, and empirically tests the research hypothesis and influence path with data from 239 enterprises. The results show that carbon risk aversion has an inverted U-shaped effect on green competitive advantage, and corporate green image plays a partial mediating role in the effect of carbon risk aversion on green competitive advantage. Further research shows that organizational learning ability can significantly enhance the inverted U-shaped relationship between carbon risk avoidance and green competitive advantage, and higher organizational learning ability can enhance the positive effect of carbon risk avoidance on green competitive advantage. The research conclusions of this paper expand the theoretical system of carbon risk, and provide theoretical basis and policy inspiration for Chinese enterprises to carry out low-carbon transformation to improve green competitive advantage from the perspective of “carbon peak”.

Key words: carbon peak, carbon risk avoidance, green image, organizational learning ability, green competitive advantage