This study aims to investigate the impact of economic complexity on ecological footprint considering the N-shaped environmental Kuznets curve (EKzC) hypothesis by designing two models in a sample of eighty-five countries (these countries are divided into four groups, high-income, lower-middle-income, upper-middle-income, and overall countries), from 2001 to 2020. The two-step system GMM method is applied to compute estimations. For model 1, the findings of the study do not validate the N-shaped EKzC hypothesis for any group. However, for model 2, findings confirm N-shaped EKzC in all income groups, except for the upper-middle-income countries. Finally, a negative relationship between renewable energy consumption and the ecological footprint was found, which highlights the importance of promoting greener energy in order to combat global warming.