High-Quality Development of China’s Marine Economy: Green Finance Perspectives (2010–2021)

The explosive growth in marine economy has the capacity to not only revolutionize the marine economic development model but also produce a transition from a marine powerhouse to a marine superpower. China’s 11 coastal provinces and municipalities, capitalizing on their geographic advantages and distinct resource endowments, have emerged as principal locations propelling maritime economic growth. In this report, we employ a green finance (GF) framework and analyze panel data from 11 coastal provinces and municipalities in China as obtained over the period from 2010 to 2021. Such an analysis has the capacity to elucidate the driving mechanisms and extent of GF’s influence on the high-quality growth of the marine sector (EQUS). Our results reveal that GF substantially promotes the EQUS, a finding that is consist with that from several robust tests involved with evaluating this relationship. When analyzing the mediating impact of GF, it appears that GF may indirectly enhance the quality and efficiency of the maritime economy by stimulating technical innovations. Results from threshold effects research indicate that the promotional impact of GF is limited by the extent of maritime technical innovation, with levels above a certain threshold markedly increasing the influence of GF. When evaluating the role of heterogeneity, the impact of green money on promotion demonstrates regional and temporal diversity, exhibiting nonlinear traits across various locations and phases of development. In areas with robust economic foundations and developed maritime sectors, the marginal impacts of green financing are significantly enhanced. Based upon these findings, it is recommended that any courses which advance the EQUS should be promoted. Specifically, the augmentation of marine-related innovation skills, cultivation of green technology innovation (TEC), and the optimization of innovative resource distribution represents critical measures to achieve this goal.