The financial technological innovation, renewable energy innovation and the resource rents-institutional quality nexus: a paradigm shift in economic growth and sustainable development in G7 economies

Sustainable development concerns the nexus between environmental protection and growth. Carbon emissions can be reduced by 2050 through financial technologies, energy transition, and institutional quality. Thus, this analysis explores the role of financial technologies, clean energy innovation, natural resources, institutional quality, and GDP in the material footprint of G7 economies from 2000 to 2019. The study applied cross-sectional (CS)-augmented autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) method, to get the answer the question of whether, financial technologies, clean energy innovation, natural resources, institutional quality are substantial for ecological sustainability. The CS-ARDL signifies the negative contribution of GDP growth and natural resources to the improving the ecological quality. The results also concluded that the strong fintech and institutional quality improvements contribute to ecological sustainability and resource conservation. In short and long-term analyses, institutional quality (INQ), renewable energy innovation, and fintech substantially improve the nations’ ecological quality. Fintech is substantial for climate sustainability. The outcomes are crucial for developing environmental policy, managing natural resources, adopting clean energy sources, and advancing fintech. The impact of renewable energy innovation on the material footprint is positive. In addition, policies addressing climate change and the milieu must be employed. Based on these findings, the paper suggests SDGs 7, 13 (affordable clean energy, climate action)-aligned policy solutions to enhance environmental sustainability.