Evolution and Impact of the Global Trade Network for Strategic Environmental Products

Amid global economic integration and changes in international patterns, strategic emerging industries have become the core driving force for high-quality economic development and industrial structure upgrading. Studying the structural evolution of the global trade network of strategic environmental products and its influence mechanism can help reveal the changes in the industrial division of labour and guide the formulation of green trade policies. Based on this, this paper analyses the evolution of trade networks of products in the fields including energy-saving technologies, new materials, renewable energy, etc., using social network analysis and an exponential random graph model with 50 countries around the world as the research object from 2010 to 2022. It is found that the global trade network of strategic environmental products has been affected by the decoupling of the international situation, and trade links have been reduced, forming three major independent groups, with a stable core-edge structure, and the United States, Germany, and China playing an important pivotal role. Factors such as economic fundamentals, R&D expenditures, and trade openness have a positive impact on network formation, while external factors and internal structural features of the network also influence network evolution.