**Appendix A Sample Countries and Classification**

We expanded our country sample to the utmost extent in order to enhance the reliability of empirical results. However, we had to drop several countries due to the significant missing data and obtained a sample of 155 countries. Table A1 presents the sample countries by different groups.


**Table A1.** Sample countries and classification.

In order to study the country specific effect of the influence of financial development on carbon emissions, we divided the sample into two groups, namely developed countries and emerging market and developing countries, this is based on the country classification of International Monetary Fund (IMF) [59]. Compared with other classification criterion, the characteristics of different types of countries was comprehensively considered rather than a single aspect or indicator, and it has been widely adopted in empirical research, such as von Hagen and Zhou [29], Donadelli and Paradiso [30], and Wu et al. [31].

It is necessary to explain that we used the word "country" in this article for simplicity, actually it refers to "country and region", which included special administrative regions et al.
