The impact of climate change on national economies constitutes one of the most significant yet still insufficiently addressed threats of our time. Although policymakers have begun to pay increasing attention to this issue, it remains relatively underexplored in the international trade and innovation literature. This study analyzes the impact of environmental technological innovations on environmental quality using panel data for 28 OECD countries over the period 1997–2022. Environmental quality is proxied by per capita CO₂ emissions, while the main explanatory variable is environmental technological innovation, measured by the share of environment-related technological patents in total patents. In addition, per capita income, trade openness, and renewable energy consumption are included in the model as control variables.

Taking cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity into account, the panel ARDL–PMG approach is employed, and the robustness of the findings is tested using FMOLS and DOLS estimators. The results indicate that, in the long run, environmental technological innovations significantly reduce CO₂ emissions. Renewable energy consumption is found to decrease emissions, whereas economic growth and trade openness are associated with higher CO₂ emissions. Furthermore, the Dumitrescu–Hurlin panel causality analysis reveals a unidirectional causality running from environmental technological innovation to CO₂ emissions.

Overall, the findings demonstrate that environmentally friendly technological innovations play a critical role in mitigating environmental degradation in OECD countries and suggest that implementing technology policies in conjunction with renewable energy strategies can enhance the effectiveness of climate policies.