<p>Environmental sustainability is one of the most significant concerns for global leaders, civil society, and academics. Over the past few decades, several empirical studies have been conducted to find the factors that can impact environmental sustainability. However, the role of private investment and mineral resources trade has limited investigated in context of environment. Therefore, this study examines the impact of mineral resources trade and private investment on environmental sustainability in BRICS economies from 1996 to 2021, using advanced econometric approaches, including cross-sectional augmented distributed lag (CS-ARDL), pooled mean group-autoregressive distributed lag (PMG-ARDL), and dynamic common correlated effects (DCCE). The long-run estimates are available for all three approaches, while the CS-ARDL and PMG-ARDL offer short-run estimates. The estimates suggest that mineral resources trade improves environmental quality by significantly reducing carbon emissions, while private investment is a critical factor in worsening environmental quality as it fosters carbon emissions. In addition, economic growth and financial development enhance carbon emissions, and renewable energy reduces carbon emissions. On the other hand, in the short run, most estimates are insignificant, except for renewable energy, which improves environmental quality, while financial development degrades it. Liberalising the mineral trade and enhancing private investment in green ventures should be integral to future environmental policy.</p>