Global economies struggle to balance economic growth and CO₂ emission reductions, jeopardizing Sustainable Development Goals despite COP26 commitments. Industrial relocation from developed countries to emerging markets, driven by lower costs and lax environmental regulations, exacerbates this issue. The European Union, through the "Green Deal" and the "Fit for 55" plan, aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 and enforces the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM). While this initiative supports environmental standards, it could disadvantage developing countries like Morocco by increasing export costs. Despite these challenges, Morocco is strengthening its cooperation with the EU to modernize trade relations, while facing the dilemma of reducing emissions without hindering sustainable economic growth. It is in this context that this research analyzes the influence of green intellectual capital (GIC) of export firms on their environmental performance (EP), examining the mediating role of green innovation ambidexterity (GIA). The central questions of the study are: How does GIC influence EP? What role does GIA play in this relationship? What actions can export firms take to improve their EP? Three main reasons justify this research: 1) The lack of empirical evidence on the proposed relationships. 2) The absence of research on this topic in the context of Moroccan export firms. 3) GIC, as an emerging field, requires further development in the intellectual capital literature. To address these questions, a quantitative approach is adopted, using Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results indicate that two components of green intellectual capital, namely green human capital and green relational capital, are positively associated with environmental performance. However, green structural capital only affects environmental performance in the presence of green exploration innovation as a mediating variable.

Green Intellectual Capital, Green Human Capital, Green Structural Capital, Green Relational Capital, Green Exploitation Innovation, Green Exploration Innovation, Environmental Performance, Export Firm