Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Toward green growth in China: The role of green finance investment, technological capital, and renewable energy consumption

  • Research Article
  • Published:
Environmental Science and Pollution Research Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In recent times, the concept of green growth has emerged, which has a critical part to play in controlling the environmental impact of economic activities. In this analysis, we have explored three determinants of green growth: green finance investment, technological capital, and renewable energy. Moreover, this study focuses on the asymmetric impact of green finance investment, technological progress, and renewable energy on green growth in China during the period spanning from 1996 to 2020. To get the asymmetric short and long-run estimates across various quantiles, we have employed the nonlinear QARDL. The long-run estimates attached to a positive shock in green finance investment, renewable energy demand, and technological capital are positively significant at most quantiles. While, the long-run estimates attached to a negative shock in green finance investment, technological capital, and renewable energy demand are insignificant at most quantiles. In general, the findings suggest that the rise in green financial investment, technological capital, and renewable energy demand positively impacts green growth in the long run. The study offers a range of significant policy recommendations that can contribute to the advancement of sustainable green growth in China.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

References

  • Ahmed F, Kousar S, Pervaiz A, Shabbir A (2022) Do institutional quality and financial development affect sustainable economic growth? Evidence from South Asian countries. Borsa Istanb Rev 22(1):189–196

  • Ahmed M, Hafeez M, Kaium MA, Ullah S, Ahmad H (2023) Do environmental technology and banking sector development matter for green growth? Evidence from top-polluted economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(6):14760–14769

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bo L, Yunbao X, Chengbo D, Chao T, Guangde Z, Usman A (2023) Financial deepening, financial innovation, and education as new determinants of green growth in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(9):23568–23577

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cao J, Law SH, Samad ARBA, Mohamad WNBW, Wang J, Yang X (2021) Impact of financial development and technological innovation on the volatility of green growth—evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28:48053–48069

  • Chao T, Yunbao X, Chengbo D, Bo L, Ullah S (2023) Financial integration and renewable energy consumption in China: do education and digital economy development matter? Environ Sci Pollut Res 30(5):12944–12952

  • Chen R, Ramzan M, Hafeez M, Ullah S (2023) Green innovation-green growth nexus in BRICS: Does financial globalization matter? J Innov Knowl 8(1):100286

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chinn MD, Ito H (2007) Current account balances, financial development and institutions: Assaying the world “saving glut.” J Int Money Financ 26(4):546–569

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chirambo D (2018) Towards the achievement of SDG 7 in sub-Saharan Africa: Creating synergies between Power Africa, Sustainable Energy for All and climate finance in-order to achieve universal energy access before 2030. Renew Sustain Energy Rev 94:600–608

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cho JS, Kim TH, Shin Y (2015) Quantile cointegration in the autoregressive distributed-lag modeling framework. J Econom 188(1):281–300

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cui H, Wang R, Wang H (2020) An evolutionary analysis of green finance sustainability based on multi-agent game. J Clean Prod 269:121799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Desalegn G, Tangl A (2022) Enhancing Green Finance for Inclusive Green Growth: A Systematic Approach. Sustainability 14(12):7416

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Deshuai M, Hui L, Ullah S (2022) Pro-environmental behavior–renewable energy transitions nexus: exploring the role of higher education and information and communications technology diffusion. Front Psychol 13

  • Falcone PM, Morone P, Sica E (2018) Greening of the financial system and fuelling a sustainability transition: A discursive approach to assess landscape pressures on the Italian financial system. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 127:23–37

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Godil DI, Sharif A, Ali MI, Ozturk I, Usman R (2021) The role of financial development, R&D expenditure, globalization and institutional quality in energy consumption in India: New evidence from the QARDL approach. J Environ Manag 285:112208

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hafeez M, Yang J, Jadoon AK, Zahan I, Salahodjaev R (2022) Exploring the asymmetric determinants of consumption and production-based CO2 emissions in China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(43):65423–65431

  • Hassan MK, Sanchez B, Yu JS (2011) Financial development and economic growth: New evidence from panel data. Q Rev Econ Finance 51(1):88–104

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ibrahim RL, Ozturk I, Al-Faryan MAS, Al-Mulali U (2022) Exploring the nexuses of disintegrated energy consumption, structural change, and financial development on environmental sustainability in BRICS: modulating roles of green innovations and regulatory quality. Sustain Energy Technol Assess 53:102529

    Google Scholar 

  • Irfan M, Razzaq A, Sharif A, Yang X (2022) Influence mechanism between green finance and green innovation: exploring regional policy intervention effects in China. Technol Forecast Soc Chang 182:121882

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee CC, Lee CC (2022) How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China. Energy Econ 107:105863

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li J, Jiang T, Ullah S, Majeed MT (2022a) The dynamic linkage between financial inflow and environmental quality: evidence from China and policy options. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(1):1051–1059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Ozturk I, Majeed MT, Hafeez M, Ullah S (2022b) Considering the asymmetric effect of financial deepening on environmental quality in BRICS economies: Policy options for the green economy. J Clean Prod 331:129909

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Shaikh PA, Ullah S (2022c) Exploring the potential role of higher education and ICT in China on green growth. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(43):64560–64567

  • Liu D, Xie Y, Hafeez M, Usman A (2022a) The trade-off between economic performance and environmental quality: does financial inclusion matter for emerging Asian economies? Environ Sci Pollut Res 29(20):29746–29755

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Vu TL, Phan TTH, Ngo TQ, Anh NHV, Putra ARS (2022b) Financial inclusion and green economic performance for energy efficiency finance. Econ Chang Restruct 55(4):2359–2389

  • Miyamoto M, Takeuchi K (2019) Climate agreement and technology diffusion: Impact of the Kyoto Protocol on international patent applications for renewable energy technologies. Energy Policy 129:1331–1338

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mo Y, Ullah S, Ozturk I (2022) Green investment and its influence on green growth in high polluted Asian economies: Do financial markets and institutions matter?. Econ Res-Ekonomska Istraživanja 1–11

  • Muganyi T, Yan L, Sun HP (2021) Green finance, fintech and environmental protection: Evidence from China. Environ Sci Ecotechnol 7:100107

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ren S, Hao Y, Wu H (2022) How does green investment affect environmental pollution? Evidence from China. Environ Resour Econ 81(1):25–51

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs A (2014) Completeness, interconnectedness and distribution of interbank exposures—a parameterized analysis of the stability of financial networks. Quantit Finance 14(9):1677–1692

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sachs J, Woo WT, Yoshino N, Taghizadeh-Hesary F (eds) (2019). Springer, Singapore

    Google Scholar 

  • Sharif A, Baris-Tuzemen O, Uzuner G, Ozturk I, Sinha A (2020) Revisiting the role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on Turkey’s ecological footprint: Evidence from Quantile ARDL approach. Sustain Cities Soc 57:102138

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shin Y, Yu B, Greenwood-Nimmo M (2014) Modelling asymmetric cointegration and dynamic multipliers in a nonlinear ARDL framework. In Festschrift in honor of Peter Schmidt. Springer, New York, NY, pp. 281–314

  • Ullah S, Ozturk I, Majeed MT, Ahmad W (2021) Do technological innovations have symmetric or asymmetric effects on environmental quality? Evidence from Pakistan. J Clean Prod 316:128239

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Usman M, Kousar R, Makhdum MSA (2020) The role of financial development, tourism, and energy utilization in environmental deficit: evidence from 20 highest emitting economies. Environ Sci Pollut Res 27:42980–42995

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wang H, Cui H, Zhao Q (2021) Effect of green technology innovation on green total factor productivity in China: Evidence from spatial durbin model analysis. J Clean Prod 288:125624

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wei X, Ren H, Ullah S, Bozkurt C (2023) Does environmental entrepreneurship play a role in sustainable green development? Evidence from emerging Asian economies. Econ Res-Ekonomska Istraživanja 36(1):73–85

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xie F, Liu Y, Guan F, Wang N (2020) How to coordinate the relationship between renewable energy consumption and green economic development: from the perspective of technological advancement. Environ Sci Eur 32(1):1–15

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Xie F, Zhang B, Wang N (2021) Non-linear relationship between energy consumption transition and green total factor productivity: A perspective on different technology paths. Sustai Prod Consum 28:91–104

    Google Scholar 

  • Xu L, Ullah S (2023) Evaluating the impacts of digitalization, financial efficiency, and education on renewable energy consumption: new evidence from China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 1–10

  • Zameer H, Yasmeen H, Wang R, Tao J, Malik MN (2020) An empirical investigation of the coordinated development of natural resources, financial development and ecological efficiency in China. Resour Policy 65:101580

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhang L, Saydaliev HB, Ma X (2022) Does green finance investment and technological innovation improve renewable energy efficiency and sustainable development goals. Renew Energy 193:991–1000

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zheng, S., Ahmed, D., Xie, Y., Majeed, M. T., & Hafeez, M. (2023). Green growth and carbon neutrality targets in China: Do financial integration and ICT matter?. J Clean Prod 136923

Download references

Funding

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shaoxing University Yuanpei College, Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, 312000, China

    Feina Fu

  2. School of Economics, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan

    Sana Ullah

Authors
  1. Feina Fu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Sana Ullah
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

This idea was given by Feina Fu. Feina Fu analyzed the data and wrote the complete paper. While Sana Ullah read and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Feina Fu.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

Not applicable.

Consent to participate

I am free to contact any of the people involved in the research to seek further clarification and information.

Consent to publish

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Responsible Editor: Nicholas Apergis

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 7

Table 7 Definitions and sources
Full size table

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Fu, F., Ullah, S. Toward green growth in China: The role of green finance investment, technological capital, and renewable energy consumption. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 72664–72674 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27205-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-27205-9

Keywords

Search

Navigation