There is serious debate among researchers regarding the sustainability implications of economic prosperity and energy dependence. Energy consumption has a critical linkage with economic growth, but it also degrades environmental quality. Therefore, it is important to investigate the relationship between economic growth, the energy mix, and environmental sustainability. However, empirical literature utilizes narrow variables to capture environmental sustainability. Because of this, this research introduces a new environmental sustainability variable using entropy weighting and combining deforestation, household carbon emissions, and life expectancy. This study examines the relationship between environmental sustainability, economic growth, and other selected variables using data from 2002 to 2019 for the G20 and its high-, upper-, and low-middle-income member countries. Since shocks in one G20 country can affect another, this study uses the Augmented Mean Group (AMG) technique for empirical analysis. The results of this study indicate that Gross Domestic Product (EG) and its square term did not support the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory. The energy mix has a positive impact on the environmental sustainability gap across all the samples except for the upper-middle-income group. Foreign direct investment positively affects this gap, while population growth has no significant impact. These findings demonstrate that policymakers should support environmentally friendly and clean energy sources to foster long-term economic growth and sustainability.

The impact of human activities on environmental degradation has been increasing over time, and ecological footprint measures the impact of human activities on the environment. An increase in ecological footprint has created alarming situations around the globe. This study explores the causes of Pakistan’s high ecological footprint (EFP). The asymmetric analysis of fossil fuels and renewable energy consumption on EFP has been carried out from 1990 to 2020. The results obtained from the NARDL approach revealed that the positive shocks of fossil fuel consumption increase EFP, but its negative shocks decline EFP. Meanwhile, both positive and negative shocks of renewable energy consumption decline EFP in Pakistan. This study suggests that renewable energy consumption can play a significant role in reducing the EFP in Pakistan.