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Sustainable development addresses global challenges by promoting practices that balance economic, social, and environmental considerations. Key factors include the shifting to green energy and the integrating of green technology in the sustainable development process. This study investigates the heterogenous effects of green technology development, green energy, R&D expenditures, FDI, economic growth, and urbanization on CO 2 emissions in 25 European Union (EU) countries using panel quantile regression over the period 2000-2021. The results, based on panel quantile regression, indicate that green energy decreases CO 2 emissions from the 10th to the 90th quantiles, while green technology development increases CO 2 emissions at the lower quantiles (10th to 60th) and then turns negative. The robustness of the fixed effect model also confirms the findings of the study. Additionally, panel causality tests indicate no causal link between green technology development and CO 2 emissions, but there is bidirectional causality between green energy and CO 2 emissions. Therefore, the findings highlight that policymakers should thoroughly evaluate measures and strategies to encourage the development of green technologies and green energy sources to reduce high levels of CO 2 emissions. One strategy is to provide financial aid and support technological advances to produce green energy at reduced costs., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)