Is China's financing for climate change prevention ensure green environment? Evaluating the role of higher education

Abstract

Over the last few years, China has maintained rapid economic growth globally. China has initiated various investments and improved higher education to tackle climate change issues and ensure a green environment. This study examines the influence of economic growth, higher education graduates, household consumption expenditures, industrial pollution prevention investment, and energy industry investment. Covering the period from 2000 to 2017, this study investigated a panel of 30 Chinese provinces. The data under study follows an irregular pattern, and all the variables are cointegrated; therefore, this study employed the novel method of moment quantile regression. Empirical findings suggest that economic growth and investment in the energy industry are the significant contributors to carbon emission in all the quantiles Q0.25, Q0.50, and Q0.75. However, higher education graduates, household consumption expenditures, and investment in industrial pollution prevention negatively and significantly affect carbon emissions and promote environmental sustainability. The Granger causality test reveals a bidirectional causal association between carbon emissions and the explanatory variables. Based on the empirical findings, this study suggests investment in environmental recovery plans, adopting renewable energy sources, improving the level of higher education by more investments for higher education graduates, environmental education, and increased investment in pollution prevention industries.