Developing a new sustainable policy perspective for Pakistan: An intricate nexus between green innovation, financial structure and ecological footprint

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) highlight that the main challenges to human welfare include both renewable and non-renewable energy sources, as well as an increasing environmental deficit, which corresponds with the objectives of SDG-7 and SDG-13. This research investigates the impact of green innovations (GIN), financial structure (FS), and energy consumption on Pakistan's ecological footprint (EFP) and green growth (GG) between 1990 and 2022. This study used the dynamic Autoregressive Distribution Lag method to inquire about the long-term interaction between the determinants of EFP and GG. The findings demonstrate that GIN, GG, and clean energy are mitigating EFP, but FS and dirty energy are increasing EFP. FS, EFP, and dirty energy hinder GG. Albeit, GIN and the adoption of clean energy possess a cumulative impact on GG. Notably, the research emphasizes the substantial moderating influence of GIN on the FS-EFP connection. This highlights the essential significance of green technologies in alleviating the detrimental impacts of FS by promoting innovative technologies and reducing EFP. Consequently, the research suggests that Pakistan should include GIN with FS to obtain long run decrease in ecological damage. In summary, Pakistan must expedite GIN with stronger FS to alleviate ecological consequences while maintaining sustainable economic development.