Financial integration and renewable energy consumption in China: do education and digital economy development matter?

Renewable energy is considered vital to addressing the issue of climate change and energy poverty. In recent times, empirics have tried to find the determinants of renewable energy consumption. Hence, the primary focus of the analysis is to estimate the impact of financial integration, education, and ICT on renewable energy consumption in China. In order to get the estimate of the variables, the analysis has applied the quantile ARDL model. The long-run estimates of the financial integration are positively significant at most quantiles, confirming the positive impact of financial integration on renewable energy consumption. Similarly, the long- run estimates of ICT are positively significant in almost all quantiles, confirming that digitalization helps increase renewable energy consumption in China. The long-term effect of education is significant at the higher quantiles. In the short run, the estimated coefficients of financial integration are positively significant at almost all quantiles; however, the estimated coefficients of ICT are positively significant in half quantiles. The short- run results of education are insignificant at most quantiles. In line with these results, several appropriate financial integration, digitalization, and education policies are recommended.