Nowadays, knowledge trade can increase the productivity of production factors and facilitate the advancement of technical knowledge and reduce the consumption of natural resources and environmental pollution and stimulate green and sustainable development. Therefore, the current research was considered with the aim of investigating the effect of knowledge trade and environment-biased technical progress on sustainable (green) development. In order to investigate the effect of knowledge trade caused by direct technology imports, foreign direct investment technology spillovers and reverse engineering of imported products and environment-biased technical progress on sustainable development, the GMM estimator has been used in the time period of 2012- 2022 and 15 industries. The results showed: Import trade is a method of absorbing technical spillovers. Domestic companies can acquire general or partial knowledge by importing advanced products. However, the ability to learn advanced knowledge from advanced products is limited by human capital. The higher and more efficient human capital is, the easier it is to take advantage of the knowledge spillover. Environmental knowledge can only be improved through the direct import of knowledge. Neither foreign direct investment nor imports can improve the level of environmental knowledge. Technical spillover and reverse engineering require efficient and knowledgeable human capital. At a certain level of environmental technology, knowledge trade, regardless of its form, has a positive effect on sustainable and green development. Therefore, although the effects of knowledge trade on green development may be limited, if a country improves its independent innovation ability, technology absorption capacity, technical level and managerial experience, the country's economy can grow stably and sustainably in the long term.