Abstract Ascertaining sustainable development is a major issue across the globe, and the economic growth pattern achieved is a predominant reason behind this. The globalization-led economic growth achieved by the emerging economies might not be ecologically sustainable, as globalization might not have been utilized as a policy tool. Moreover, a sound policy calls for considering the entire data spectrum for the analysis, which is largely ignored in the literature. This research contributes to the literature by proffering a policy framework for the emerging economies by analyzing the impact of globalization and tourism on environmental degradation, by considering the Chinese context as a sample. Following the quantile autoregressive distributed lag model, the impact of economic growth, globalization, and tourism on greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide emissions, and the ecological footprint in China over 1978Q1-2017Q4 are analyzed. The results demonstrate that economic growth stimulates environmental degradation, while the presence of Environmental Kuznets Curve is also validated. Moreover, tourism has been found to exert positive environmental externalities, while globalization exerts negative environmental externalities. Based on the outcomes of the research, a comprehensive policy framework has been suggested, following which the Chinese economy might be able to attain the objectives of Sustainable Development Goals 7, 8, and 13.