This paper examined the impact of foreign direct investment, financial development, and economic growth on environmental quality in 26 OECD countries from 2000 to 2014. Environmental quality adopted proxies: carbon emissions, greenhouse gases, carbon monoxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and volatile organic compounds. The study used panel quantile regression. The findings demonstrate that foreign direct investments show varied significant negative and positive associations with all types of environmental quality in both lower and higher carbon‐emitting countries, although the negative links were more predominant. As such, halos and havens exist in explored quantiles. Financial development indicates a predominantly negative connection with environmental quality across the quantiles. Economic growth indicates diverse negative and positive relationships with all types of environmental quality in both lower and higher carbon‐emitting countries, although the positive links appear to be more announced across the quantiles. As such, some quantiles show no evidence of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), while other quantiles confirm the N‐shaped and the inverted N‐shaped EKC models. Thus, structures within the OECD economies should be made more environmentally friendly to fully enjoy the benefits of a low‐carbon environment.