The paper addresses the crucial question of how quality language education contributes to green economic growth, particularly within the context of China's significant carbon emissions and commitment to carbon neutrality. The study's purpose is to quantitatively assess this relationship, filling a gap in existing research that primarily focuses on economic, rather than social, factors influencing sustainable growth. The importance of the study stems from the urgency of mitigating climate change and the role education plays in fostering societal awareness and skills necessary for green development. China serves as a suitable case study due to its substantial contribution to global carbon emissions and its proactive approach to implementing sustainable education programs since 1992. The researchers aim to establish a quantifiable link between language education quality and green economic growth indicators in Chinese provinces using a rigorous econometric approach and a newly calculated green growth index.

The literature review is divided into two main strands. The first focuses on existing studies exploring green growth in various countries. These studies highlight the positive impacts of sustainable growth on human capital, the social aspects of green growth policies, the complex and multi-dimensional nature of achieving sustainable growth, and the role of technology and investment in promoting green growth. The second strand examines the relationship between education and a sustainable economy. These studies emphasize the role of education in raising environmental awareness, improving sustainable literacy, fostering green skills, and transforming educational institutions into leading centers for sustainable development. While prior studies have touched upon these aspects individually, a detailed study on the effect of quality language education specifically on China's green growth remains absent; this research aims to address this gap.

The study employs a panel data framework using annual data from 23 Chinese provinces between 2010 and 2021. A green growth index was calculated for each province using the weighting TOPSIS (Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) method proposed by Lin and Zhou (2022). Quality language education, the main explanatory variable, was collected from the Chinese General Social Survey data. Control variables include renewable power generation, waste generation, green investment, and green jobs. Before econometric estimations, the researchers checked for multicollinearity using the variance inflation factor (VIF) and assessed cross-sectional dependency using Pesaran's CD test. The CIPS (cross-sectionally IPS) panel unit root test was used to determine the stationarity of variables. Given the presence of variables with different orders of integration, the ARDL (autoregressive distributed lag) model with the PMG (pooled mean group) estimator was employed. The co-integration relationship between variables was also tested. The robustness of the findings was checked by altering the dependent variable to a composite green growth index.

The multicollinearity test showed no multicollinearity issues. The Pesaran's CD test confirmed cross-sectional dependency among the provinces. The CIPS test indicated that the variables were stationary at I(0) and I(1), justifying the use of ARDL-PMG. The co-integration test results showed that the variables were co-integrated in the long run. The ARDL-PMG estimation results revealed that quality language education significantly promotes sustainable economic growth in both the short and long term. A 1% increase in quality language education leads to a 0.69% increase in short-term and a 0.013% increase in long-term sustainable growth. Renewable power generation also positively affected green economic growth. Conversely, waste generation negatively impacted sustainable growth. Green investment and green job creation showed positive correlations with sustainable growth. A robustness check using a composite green growth index yielded qualitatively similar results, although the statistical significance of some coefficients differed slightly.

The findings confirm the positive impact of education on sustainable development, supporting previous research. The significant positive effect of quality language education on green economic growth suggests that improving education quality can be a crucial strategy for fostering sustainable development in China. The results highlight the importance of investing in education for sustainable development (ESD) and emphasize the interconnectedness between education, renewable energy, waste management, and economic growth. The significant negative impact of waste generation underscores the need for strategies promoting a circular economy. The study's contribution lies in empirically demonstrating the significant, quantifiable role of quality language education in promoting green economic growth, particularly in a rapidly developing economy like China.

This study provides strong empirical evidence for the positive relationship between quality language education and green economic growth in Chinese provinces. The findings highlight the importance of social factors, such as education, in achieving sustainable development goals. Future research could explore the impact of education quality at the individual provincial level to inform more targeted policy interventions. Further investigation into the role of universities in expanding renewable energy sources would also be valuable.

The study is limited to 23 Chinese provinces and the period 2010-2021. The generalizability of the findings to other countries or regions may be limited. The green growth index used in the study relies on specific indicators; using alternative indices could lead to slightly different results. The study focuses on the correlation between quality language education and green economic growth; it does not establish a causal relationship definitively.