Navigating renewable technological innovations and green supply chain management: Crafting a novel framework for boosting ecological quality in China

Green supply chain management and renewable technological innovations are integral to sustainable development goal (SDG) 9. Additionally, it serves as the basis for generating eco-friendly energy, indirectly contributing to the achievement of SDG 9. The shift from fossil fuels to green energy sources is crucial for sustainable development and promoting an eco-friendly setting. Therefore, this study examines the major driving forces of ecological quality (proxied by load capacity factor) between 1990Q1 and 2022Q4. Other factors, including natural gas consumption and energy prices, are also studied. The recently proposed quantile-based KRLS and Granger causality are utilized to solve the non-linear and non-normal distribution of the series. The findings of QQKRLS reveal that renewable technological innovations increase load capacity factor (LCF) across all quantiles, thus improving ecological quality. On the other hand, across all quantiles, natural gas consumption, energy prices, economic growth, urbanization, and green supply chain management lessen LCF, thus decreasing ecological quality. The QQGC results show that all the regressors (renewable technological innovations, natural gas consumption, energy prices, economic growth, and green supply chain management) can significantly predict LCF across all quantiles. The study formulates policies in line with these findings.