Under the background of “dual-carbon”, the negative impact of corporate carbon emissions on financial performance has gradually increased and become a new driving force of surplus manipulation. Taking the listed companies disclosing social responsibility reports and other related information in China’s Shanghai and Shenzhen A-shares from 2013 to 2022 as research samples, we empirically study the impact of carbon emissions on corporate surplus manipulation behavior and the path of its effect. The study finds that: carbon emissions significantly exacerbate corporate surplus manipulation; the number of carbon emissions disclosure as a moderating variable can exacerbate the positive association between carbon emissions and surplus manipulation; the path test results show that carbon emissions exacerbate the degree of corporate surplus manipulation by increasing environmental protection expenses and green transformation. The results of heterogeneity analysis show that government environmental subsidies, market green funding, institutional investment research and higher audit quality can mitigate the aggravating effect of carbon emissions on surplus manipulation. The above conclusions still hold after endogeneity treatment and robustness test. The study provides a reference for mitigating the negative impact of carbon emissions on business operations and improving the quality of surplus information.