Renewable energy and green innovation can enhance environmental performance by encouraging international trade, as anticipated by the current theoretical framework. This study investigates how renewable energy and eco-innovation affect international trade and environmental performance using quarterly data series from 1981 to 2018 for China. The study applies a quantile-based autoregressive distributed lag model. The results indicate that environmental innovation and renewable energy are consistent with environmental quality, while trade openness and urbanization contribute to environmental degradation by stimulating CO 2 emissions. In addition, the quantile causality test showed a bidirectional causality between renewable energy and CO 2 emissions, trade openness and CO 2 emissions, and urbanization and CO 2 emissions. Additionally, the findings lend theoretical support for the formulation of environmentally protective policies to better understand the role of renewable energy in stimulating international trade, which eventually enhances environmental performance.