The Energy Dilemma: Does Energy Security Risk and Renewable Energy Affect Fossil Material Footprint? Policy Framework for Securing <scp>SDGs</scp>

ABSTRACT Following a high economic growth path, the group of G7 economies is found to be utilising more and more material, causing a material footprint (MF), which in turn contributes to pollution. The MF can be derived from various factors, including fossil fuels, building materials, and biomass. But the G7 countries heavily rely on carbon‐based fuels, which are considered the key source of the MF. The energy security issues further call for control of the situation by lowering the MF and improving the quality of the environment by enhancing the use of renewable sources of energy. The current study intends to add to the literature by exploring the linkages between economic growth and MF, keeping in view the energy security issues in G7 economies over the period from 1985 to 2018. The study crafts a model of environmental pollution by evaluating the effects of economic growth, the energy security risk (ESR), and renewable energy consumption (REC) on the fossil material footprint (FMF). The inferences are drawn using the panel quantile regression (PQR) technique. The outcomes showed that FMF significantly and positively correlated with the ESR, but in the last two upper quantiles, the impact of ESR becomes significantly negative. Likewise, the utilisation of renewable energy is found to control FMF across all quartiles. Moreover, the association between economic growth and FMF proves the invalidity of the EKC hypothesis. Keeping in view the outcomes generated, the study recommended certain policy implications which could help G7 countries to secure SDG 07, SDG 12 and SDG 13 (climate action) directly, whereas SDG 08 and SDG 09 are indirectly.