Against the backdrop of China’s “dual carbon” goals, environmental information disclosure mitigates information asymmetry and fosters multi-stakeholder collaboration among regulators, firms, and the public, serving as a vital complement to formal environmental regulations. While existing studies largely examine its single-dimensional effects, how such disclosure reshapes corporate incentives to drive corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance remains underexplored.

This paper addresses this gap by developing an integrated framework that captures external pressure, internal incentives, and synergy effects, thereby revealing how environmental information disclosure affects corporate ESG performance. This paper empirically examines the underlying mechanisms using data from Shanghai and Shenzhen A-share listed companies. The results show that improved environmental information disclosure significantly enhances corporate ESG performance. Mechanism testing reveals that the disclosure operates through three channels: It strengthens external oversight by local governments and the public; it drives internal incentives such as green innovation, appointments of environmentally friendly executives, and improved occupational health systems; and it generates synergy effects among diverse stakeholders that amplify the overall ESG governance effectiveness.

The main contributions of this paper are as follows: First, it extends beyond the literature’s focus on single-dimensional effects by integrating environmental information disclosure and corporate ESG performance into a unified framework, thereby revealing the full pathway through which informal regulation drives corporate transformation across environmental, social, and governance dimensions. Second, it constructs a multi-stakeholder optimization model that mathematically illuminates the causal “black box”, identifying three core mechanisms—external pressure, internal incentives, and synergy effects. Third, using matched Chinese prefecture-level PITI data and listed companies’ ESG ratings, it provides novel evidence from an emerging economy on how environmental information disclosure enhances corporate ESG performance, offering theoretical and empirical support for developing a modern multi-stakeholder environmental governance system.