The role of green credit in energy resilience: A quasi-natural experiment from China.

Abstract

Green credit policy is an important practice of financial regulation, and its possible effect on energy resilience cannot be ignored. This article adopts theoretical derivation and empirical strategies to study the effect and mechanism of green credit on energy resilience. The promulgation of "green credit guidelines" is used as a quasinatural experiment, and the findings indicate that green credit can significantly improve energy resilience. These conclusions remain valid after excluding other policy interferences during the study period, using instrumental variable estimation, replacing variables, and conducting placebo tests. Furthermore, the improvement effect of green credit on energy resilience is primarily observed in locations with a better financial environment, longer tenure of officials, and a higher degree of marketization. Mechanism analysis reveals that green credit can affect energy resilience by mitigating resource misallocation, accelerating energy technology innovation, and promoting industrial structure rationalization. This paper provides valuable policy insights to improve green credit policy and prevent systematic energy risks.