Evaluating the impacts of digitalization, financial efficiency, and education on renewable energy consumption: new evidence from China

Policymakers around the globe have used various options for controlling CO2 emissions, among which increasing renewable energy consumption has proved to be the most viable. Consequently, this research attempts to look into the effects of financial efficiency, education, and digitization on renewable energy consumption in China from 1994 to 2020. To estimate the short- and long-run relationship between the variables, we have utilized the QARDL approach. The results suggest that the ICT, financial institutions and market development, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions all help improve renewable energy consumption in China in the long run. In the short run, the ICT, financial institutions and markets, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions all proved to be beneficial in increasing renewable energy consumption. In order to test whether our independent variables have a symmetric or asymmetric impact on renewable energy consumption, the Wald test is applied, which confirms the long-run nonlinear impact of ICT, financial institutions and markets, education, GDP, and CO2 emissions on renewable energy consumption, while the short-run asymmetric impacts are confirmed for a financial institution and GDP only. Therefore, governments should reinforce the amalgamation of digitalization, financial efficiency, and education while formulating policies for renewable energy consumption.