Energy 269 (2023) 126683 Available online 18 January 2023 0360-5442/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Investment in renewable energy and electricity output: Role of green fnance, environmental tax, and geopolitical risk: Empirical evidence from China ☆ Jawad Abbas a, * , Lisu Wang b , Samira Ben Belgacem c , Puja Sunil Pawar f , Hina Najam d , Jaffar Abbas e a Faculty of Management Sciences, University of Central Punjab, Pakistan b SKEMA Business School, Campus de Sophia Antipolis de SKEMA, 60 rue Dostoievski, Sophia Antipolis, Nice, France c Business Administration Department, Business & Administration College, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia d Department of Business Administration, Iqra University Islamabad, Pakistan e School of Media and Communication & Antai College of Economics and Management, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 200240, Shanghai, China f Department of Economics, Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Saudi Arabia A R T I C L E INFO Handling Editor: P Ferreira Keywords: Renewable energy Green fnance Electricity output Geopolitical risk Environmental tax ABSTRACT The global fnancial downturn induced by COVID-19 has hampered the effectiveness of renewable energy de- velopments, impeding the accomplishment of the United Nations’ sustainable development targets. Green fnance is a signifcant means for promoting renewable energy investment and achieving sustainability. Using data from 2012 to 2021 from ffty energy frms in China, this study highlights the starring part of geopolitical risk, green fnance, and environmental tax in investment in renewable energy (IRE) sources. It also investigated how IRE impacts the studied frms’ electricity output. The data were analyzed through quantile regression and dynamic analysis techniques. The results indicated that green fnancing and environmental tax signifcantly impact IRE sources with 0.137*** and 0.428*** beta values, respectively. However, geopolitical risk signif- cantly impedes such projects. Similarly, IRE signifcantly increases the electricity output of Chinese energy frms. This research is unique in the sense of studying green fnancing, geopolitical risk, and environmental tax nexus in renewable energy investments leading to electricity generation, which shows a pivotal role in achieving envi- ronmental sustainability and provides valuable insights to environmentalists and policymakers to design and implement ecological strategies leading to achieving sustainable development goals. 1. Introduction Protection of the natural atmosphere and resources has received signifcant attention during the last few decades [1,2]. Credit goes to ecologists, and related stakeholders whose continuous efforts to increase public awareness about declined natural resources [3] put signifcant pressure on industries to abandon their reliance on renewable or pro-environmental energy channels [4]. Considering the environmental degradation issue, seventeen global goals for sustainable development (SD) designed by the United Nations (UN) were established [5]. The Environment Change Conference in Glasgow (COP26) also focused on supporting frms moving from fossil fuel to green energy [6]. Such initiatives’ ultimate objective is to balance the environment, economy, and society [7,8]. Organizations worldwide have started capitalizing on renewable energy and redesigning their operations, paying attention to green fnance (GF), which are some examples of these changes [9,10]. GF generally includes green credit card investments [11] that contain environmental funding and other ecological goals like sup- portable promotion [12,13]. It is also a fnancial innovation product that creates an economic and ecological win-win situation [14]. GF is funding initiatives that give signifcant aid while improving the envi- ronment [15]. In recent years, this idea has received considerable attention worldwide, and China has emerged as the most signifcant green bond market [16]. Because of high commercialization, wind en- ergy has become a substantial element of China’s eco-energy [17]. The ☆ All authors contributed equally to this manuscript. * Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: jawad.abbas@ymail.com (J. Abbas), lisu.wang@outlook.com (L. Wang), benbelgacem@pnu.edu.sa (S. Ben Belgacem), pspawar@pnu.edu.sa (P.S. Pawar), hinanajam786@yahoo.com (H. Najam), dr.abbas.jaffar@outlook.com (J. Abbas). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Energy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.126683 Received 3 June 2022; Received in revised form 7 January 2023; Accepted 10 January 2023