Does the financial investment preference of renewable energy firms promote their advance towards sustainable development goals?

Renewable energy firms are mainly private. The long payback period and low return characteristics of renewable energy projects and the natural financing disadvantages of private firms seriously hinder the sustainable development of renewable energy firms. We study the impact of the financial investment preference of renewable energy firms on their sustainable development using a sample of Chinese renewable energy firms from 2008 to 2022. The results show that the increasing financial investment preference of renewable energy firms significantly inhibits their sustainable development. Further, we also find that the increase in digital inclusive finance and the increase in transparency weaken the negative impact of the financial investment preference of renewable energy firms on their sustainable development.