What role does trade expansion play in the natural resource sustainability of highly resource-consuming countries? Testing Moderating Role of Exports and Innovation

Resource efficiency is a crucial measure in formulating climatic policy. The susceptibility to environmental challenges prompts the need to develop and identify how to assess and assure resource efficiency. Although existing studies scrutinize the determinants of natural resource sustainability; however, no significant work is observed which explores its nexus with trade and innovation in an integrated framework. Therefore, this study inspects the influence of trade (imports and exports), green innovation, and economic growth on natural resource sustainability from 1990 to 2019. Using Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR), the results revealed that imports and green innovation reduce trade-adjusted resource depletion, while exports and economic growth impede resource sustainability. The moderating effect of green innovation and export exhibits that the negative consequences of exports are neutralized if exports industry is embodied with a green innovation-led production process. Manifestly, the influence of imports, exports, and innovation are more substantial at lower quantiles and vice versa. Similar results are echoed by alternative estimators and offer valuable policy intervention for resource sustainability.