IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v16y2024i18p8052-d1478438.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does Green Finance Development Enhance the Sustainability Performance of China’s Energy Companies?

Author

Listed:
  • Li Guo

    (College of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710600, China)

  • Fangxia Chen

    (College of Management, Xi’an University of Science and Technology, Xi’an 710600, China)

  • Linhao Chen

    (School of Economics and Management, Xi’an Shiyou University, Xi’an 710065, China)

Abstract

The achievement of China’s “dual-carbon” standard has been devoted to the green transformation and the sustainable growth of energy firms, both of which can be financed by the growth of green financing. This study aims to investigate how the development level of green finance influences the sustainable development performance of listed energy companies in China. It seeks to delve into the underlying mechanisms connecting green finance with financing constraints and, subsequently, with sustainability performance, as well as exploring the relationship between green finance and green total factor productivity in relation to sustainability performance. Additionally, this study will provide strategies and recommendations to enhance the sustainable development capabilities of energy enterprises. This study empirically evaluates the four aspects of sustainable development performance: economic, social, environmental, and innovative performance—as well as its mechanism of action using the fixed-effects pattern with two ways and the mediated-effects pattern using unbalanced panel data from Chinese-listed energy firms spanning from 2011 to 2020. The study discovered that (1) energy firms’ performance in sustainable development is greatly enhanced by the progression of green finance; (2) the advancement of green finance effectively boosts the sustainable development performance of energy companies by reducing financing constraints and enhancing green total factor productivity; (3) a more distinct relationship is evident between the extent of green financing development and the performance of sustainable development within state-owned enterprises. While green finance development has a stronger role in innovative performance for larger energy firms, it has a noticeable proactive impact on the economic, social, and environmental performance of smaller energy enterprises. Based on the study’s findings, this paper presents recommendations for the enhancement of green financing policies and the sustainable enhancement of energy enterprises in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Li Guo & Fangxia Chen & Linhao Chen, 2024. "Does Green Finance Development Enhance the Sustainability Performance of China’s Energy Companies?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(18), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:18:p:8052-:d:1478438
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8052/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/16/18/8052/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Wang, Fuhao & Chang, Yu-Fang, 2023. "Does green finance promote renewable energy? Evidence from China," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    2. Ameer, Farah & Khan, Naveed R., 2023. "Green entrepreneurial orientation and corporate environmental performance: A systematic literature review," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 755-778.
    3. Sheng Xu & Haonan Dong, 2023. "Green Finance, Industrial Structure Upgrading, and High-Quality Economic Development–Intermediation Model Based on the Regulatory Role of Environmental Regulation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-23, January.
    4. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    5. Fan, Haichao & Peng, Yuchao & Wang, Huanhuan & Xu, Zhiwei, 2021. "Greening through finance?," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    6. He, Lingyun & Liu, Rongyan & Zhong, Zhangqi & Wang, Deqing & Xia, Yufei, 2019. "Can green financial development promote renewable energy investment efficiency? A consideration of bank credit," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 974-984.
    7. Vera Mirovic & Branimir Kalas & Ines Djokic & Nikola Milicevic & Nenad Djokic & Milos Djakovic, 2023. "Green Loans in Bank Portfolio: Financial and Marketing Implications," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-14, March.
    8. Francesca Bartolacci & Andrea Caputo & Michela Soverchia, 2020. "Sustainability and financial performance of small and medium sized enterprises: A bibliometric and systematic literature review," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1297-1309, March.
    9. Francisco Climent & Pilar Soriano, 2011. "Green and Good? The Investment Performance of US Environmental Mutual Funds," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(2), pages 275-287, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Shunping Teng & Haslindar Ibrahim, 2025. "The Green Finance Reform Pilot Zone Policy and Corporate Sustainable Development Performance: A Quasi-Natural Experiment from China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Meisha Zhang & Yongfang Wu & Hang Su, 2025. "The Influence of Green Finance on “Dual Carbon” Goals: Analyzing the Functions of Government and Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-14, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lee, Chien-Chiang & Yuan, Zihao & Kang, Yongchao, 2024. "Green finance and land ecological security: A potential mechanism for sustainable development," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 1222-1241.
    2. Lin, Tao & Zhang, Ling & Li, Jianglong, 2024. "Coupling and coordinated development of green finance and renewable energy industry in China: Spatiotemporal differentiation and driving factors," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 235(C).
    3. Zhou, Fangkezi & Pan, Yinghao & Wu, Jie & Xu, Chengzhen & Li, Xingchen, 2024. "The impact of green finance on renewable energy development efficiency in the context of energy security: Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 803-816.
    4. Wang, Mei Ling, 2023. "Effects of the green finance policy on the green innovation efficiency of the manufacturing industry: A difference-in-difference model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    5. Yayun Ren & Jian Yu & Shuhua Xu & Jiaomei Tang & Chang Zhang, 2023. "Green Finance and Industrial Low-Carbon Transition: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, March.
    6. Ma, Dan & He, Yuhang & Zeng, Linggang, 2024. "Can green finance improve the ESG performance? Evidence from green credit policy in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 137(C).
    7. Dogan, Eyup & Madaleno, Mara & Taskin, Dilvin & Tzeremes, Panayiotis, 2022. "Investigating the spillovers and connectedness between green finance and renewable energy sources," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 709-722.
    8. Zhao, Qian & Qin, Chuan & Ding, Longfei & Cheng, Ying-Yue & Vătavu, Sorana, 2023. "Can green bond improve the investment efficiency of renewable energy?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 127(PB).
    9. Bakry, Walid & Mallik, Girijasankar & Nghiem, Xuan-Hoa & Sinha, Avik & Vo, Xuan Vinh, 2023. "Is green finance really “green”? Examining the long-run relationship between green finance, renewable energy and environmental performance in developing countries," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 208(C), pages 341-355.
    10. Peng, Wei & Xiong, Langyu, 2022. "Managing financing costs and fostering green transition: The role of green financial policy in China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 820-836.
    11. Meisha Zhang & Yongfang Wu & Hang Su, 2025. "The Influence of Green Finance on “Dual Carbon” Goals: Analyzing the Functions of Government and Market," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(3), pages 1-14, January.
    12. Zhang, Dongyang, 2023. "Does green finance really inhibit extreme hypocritical ESG risk? A greenwashing perspective exploration," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 121(C).
    13. Satar Bakhsh & Md Shabbir Alam & Wei Zhang, 2024. "Green finance and Sustainable Development Goals: is there a role for geopolitical uncertainty?," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 57(4), pages 1-30, August.
    14. Wang, Yafei & Shi, Ming & Zhao, Zihan & Liu, Junnan & Zhang, Shiqiu, 2025. "How does green finance improve the total factor energy efficiency? Capturing the mediating role of green management innovation and embodied technological progress," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    15. Sampene, Agyemang Kwasi & Li, Cai & Wiredu, John, 2024. "An outlook at the switch to renewable energy in emerging economies: The beneficial effect of technological innovation and green finance," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    16. Liu, Yang & Wang, Jianda & Dong, Kangyin & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad, 2023. "How does natural resource abundance affect green total factor productivity in the era of green finance? Global evidence," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    17. Tian, Jinfang & Sun, Siyang & Cao, Wei & Bu, Di & Xue, Rui, 2024. "Make every dollar count: The impact of green credit regulation on corporate green investment efficiency," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    18. Kassi, Diby Francois & Li, Yao, 2025. "Does green financing benefit the development of renewable energy capacities and environmental quality? Evidence from Chinese provinces," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 242(C).
    19. Lee, Chi-Chuan & Lee, Chien-Chiang, 2022. "How does green finance affect green total factor productivity? Evidence from China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    20. Bhavesh Kumar & Love Kumar & Avinash Kumar & Ramna Kumari & Uroosa Tagar & Claudio Sassanelli, 2024. "Green finance in circular economy: a literature review," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 16419-16459, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:16:y:2024:i:18:p:8052-:d:1478438. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.