A study of trilemma energy balance, clean energy transitions, and economic expansion in the midst of environmental sustainability: New insights from three trilemma leadership

We investigate the impact of trilemma energy balance and clean energy transitions on economic expansion and environmental sustainability while moderating the role of clean energy and natural resources rents of the three trilemma leaders from 1990 to 2016. Through this study, we have developed a comprehensive empirical analysis, applied advanced econometric methodologies. Westerlund's panel co-integration suggests long-run relationships within the variables. Our long-run random effect generalized least squares (GLS), generalized least square mixed effect models (GLMM), and robust correlated panel corrected standard errors (PCSEs) findings indicate trilemma energy balance, clean energy transition, and natural resource depletion enhance economic growth while clean energy discourages this growth. Moreover, trilemma energy balance, clean energy transitions, and clean energy improve while natural resources depletion deteriorates environmental sustainability in the trilemma energy leadership. Increasing the trilemma energy balance by 1% boosts economic growth by 0.3874223%. By increasing the trilemma energy balance by 1%, the ecological footprint is reduced by −0.5901441%. A 1% acceleration in the clean energy transitions boosts economic growth by 0.1208461%. By accelerating the transition to clean energy by 1%, the environmental footprint would decrease by 0.0273685%. Crucial policy implications and study limitations are discussed.