Balancing acts: Assessing the roles of renewable energy, economic complexity, Fintech, green finance, green growth, and economic performance in G-20 countries amidst sustainability efforts

The Group of Twenty (G-20) nations are accountable for most of the global pollution and environmental degradation. Their contribution to global GDP and economic complexity (EC) significantly reflects the environmental degradation they have instigated. The G-20 nations are addressing environmental issues by emphasizing green finance (GFN) and fintech (FIN), with enhanced institutional integrity. Therefore, it becomes important to know that how economic complexity, renewable energy (RE), natural resources (NTR), GDP, green finance, green growth (GRW), fintech, and institutional quality (GOV) contribute to environmental sustainability in G-20 countries. In doing so, this work employed the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) on the annual data from 2000 to 2021. The findings demonstrate that EC (−0.094 to −0.019), economic growth GDP (−0.660 to −0.458), and FIN (−0.017 to −0.008) are diminishing ecological footprints (EF) over four quantiles. Conversely, RE (0.019 to 0.076), NTR (0.084 to 0.109), and GOV (0.084 to 0.115) significantly influence the enhancement of EF. GFN (−0.148 to −0.109) concurrently reduces EF, but GRW (−0.061 to −0.007) exhibits a subtle effect. In the G-20, green growth and green finance can be essential drivers of environmental sustainability. It is advised that governments employ carbon taxes in tandem with environmental performance subsidies to enhance their sustainability initiatives. The governments of the G-20 nations need to make use of Fintech's advancements to make sure that businesses observe it appealing to employ sustainable practices to maintain their development trajectory.