Green development and low-carbon transformation is the only way to develop the new quality of productive forces, and it is a profound systematic change, which is bound to have a profound and wide-ranging impact on China’s economy and society. The impact of the performance of listed companies in the low-carbon economy from the dual perspectives of game perspective and quasi-natural experiment of “low-carbon city pilot” policy was explored. The pilot policy promotes performance improvement through three ways, such as mitigating inefficient investment, improving financial status and alleviating financing constraints. Meanwhile, the impact of the pilot policy on corporate performance is heterogeneous across industries and business-age enterprises. Policy insights in the development of low-carbon economy to continue are provided to cultivate and promote new quality productivity, stimulate enterprise innovation, and improve the information disclosure mechanism.