The Impact of China's Environmental Goods Trade on Global Supply Chain Resilience: Evidence from Emerging Market and Developing Economies (2013-2025)

Abstract

In the face of growing geopolitical uncertainties, climate events and changes, trade barriers, and energy-market volatility, supply-chain or value chain resilience has become paramount, especially for emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs). Meanwhile, China is the leading supplier of environmental goods globally, such as techniques in solar photovoltaic (PV), batteries, electric vehicles, wind-power equipment and energy-efficiency technologies. By systematically searching the literature from 2013 onwards to 2025, this study analyzes the literature on the impact of China's environmental-goods trade on supply-chain resilience in EMDEs. The review selects and consolidates publications on the themes of environmental-goods trade, clean-technology supply chains, trade dependence, technology transfer opportunities, energy diversification strategies, participation in global value chains, and local supply-chain resilience using the Web of Science Core Collection as its main bibliographic database. The results show a double impact. On the other hand, China's environmental-goods trade can contribute to resilience through the availability of low-cost green technologies, renewable energy investment and capacity, and energy security, as well as by decreasing reliance on non-renewable energy sources and being able to engage in green global value chains. However, at the upper end of supplier concentration can contribute to import dependency, technological vulnerability, residual low domestic value and geopolitical and trade vulnerability. The analysis also reveals that the ability of Chinese environmental-goods trade to make nations more resilient depends on their domestic infrastructure to accommodate such firms, their financial capacity, and their technological capabilities, as well as institutional quality and trade diversification. The research draws the conclusion that together with the trade cooperation, supplier diversification, domestic industrial upgrading, technology transfer, institutional strengthening and regional cooperation, EMDEs can maximise the resilience benefits of Chinese environmental-goods trade. The study makes a novel contribution in combining both resilience-inducing and vulnerability-inducing aspects of China's environmental-goods trade into the same analytical frame.

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