Given the current need to protect the environment around the world, more and more enterprises at various levels are voluntarily promoting environmental protection initiatives now. However, in practice, some companies are only speaking about environmental protection and making commitments in their environmental disclosures without taking any corresponding actions; that is to say, their words do not match their deeds. Select Chinese A-share listed companies in the heavily polluting industries from 2016 to 2025. Based on the “words” and “deeds” of corporate environmental responsibility implementation, this paper develops an indicator for the inconsistency of corporate environmental responsibility words and deeds by measuring the gap between corporate environmental disclosures and actual environmental performance. Then we will empirically examine the connection between this inconsistency and audit opinions. Based on the above analysis, inconsistencies in a company’s environmental responsibility claims and actual practices will increase the overall risk of the company and may lead to non-standard audit opinions from auditors. Heterogeneity analysis indicates that the impact of the inconsistency between corporate environmental responsibility words and deeds on audit opinions is stronger in environments with increased analyst attention, excellent auditor industry experience, and non-state ownership. This paper provides new empirical evidence for the economic benefits of corporate social responsibility and, in addition, expands the body of knowledge on the causes of audit fees and offers practical support for the decision-making process of setting audit fees.
