The Coupling Relationship between Green Finance and Ecosystem Service Demand in China Based on an Improved Coupling Coordination Degree Model

With the rapid development of society and economy, people’s demand for ecosystem services is constantly increasing. All countries support this demand by vigorously developing green finance. The coordinated development of green finance and ecosystem service demand is of great significance for sustainable development. Most of the existing studies separately study green finance or ecosystem service demand, separating the relationship between the two. At present, there is still a lack of clear understanding of the coupling relationship between green finance and ecosystem service demand. In addition, in the existing coupling relationship calculation models, the setting of relevant parameters is subjective. Therefore, based on the green finance and ecosystem service demand database of 30 provinces in China from 2010 to 2017, this paper firstly evaluates the green finance and ecosystem service demand quantitatively, and then analyzes the coupling coordination relationship between them by using an improved coupling coordination degree model. The results show that: (1) compared with the traditional coupling coordination degree model, the contribution coefficient of each subsystem in the improved coupling coordination degree model has a more sufficient basis, and more objective evaluation results; (2) from 2010 to 2017, the level of green finance in China’s provinces increased significantly, showing a spatial pattern of “high in the east and low in the west”; the ecosystem services demand increased first and then decreased, with an increase in nearly two-thirds of provinces; (3) the coupling coordination relationship between green finance and ecosystem service demand in China’s provinces was optimized continuously from 2010 to 2017, showing the spatial differentiation of “eastern China > central China > northeast China > western China”; (4) in 2017, the coupling coordination degree of green finance and ecosystem service demand in Guangdong Province was the highest, reaching a high level of coordination, while Qinghai Province was the lowest, as a result of a serious level of incoordination. It is worth noting that the comprehensive development level of green finance in China is still low and seriously lags behind the development level of ecosystem services demand. In the future, green and low-carbon transformation should be accelerated to promote the sustainable development of financial ecology.