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This study empirically examined the relationship between energy-focused climate policies (EFC) and trade (TR) in 65 of the world's top renewable energy generation countries using data ranging from 1995 to 2022. The cross-sectional augmented distributed lags (CS-DL) results revealed positive effects of EFC on both employment and economic growth. It also proves the positive effects of both employment and economic growth on trade. The Dumitrescu Hurlin test confirmed the feedback causality within indirect effects. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) allowed us to show that employment and economic growth mediate the EFC and TR. All the SEM results were robust due to the positive heterogeneous effects obtained from panel quantile regression. The results also confirmed the presence of heterogeneous effects of EFC and TR on clean energy poverty. Furthermore, the study suggests promoting more incentives, investment, and monitoring in renewable energy resource infrastructure, carbon finance, and energy efficiency to promote trade and reduce clean energy poverty in the long run. • Energy-based green climate policies and the trade nexus investigated for 28 years. • Recent estimators employed in 65 of the world' top renewable energy generation countries. • Employment and economic growth mediate the positive nexus between energy-based policies and trade. • Energy policies and trade heterogeneously affects clean energy poverty across countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]