Energy is at the heart of many United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Countries should balance the three core dimensions of the world energy trilemma: energy affordability and access, energy security, and environmental sustainability to build a solid basis for prosperity and competitiveness. We investigate the impact of world energy trilemma and transformative energy developments on economic growth and environmental sustainability of the top ten and near bottom ten selected countries of SDGs index 2021, using investment in non-financial assets and energy use as moderator variables, from 1990 to 2016. We have developed a comprehensive empirical analysis and applied advanced econometric methodologies. Westerlund's panel co-integration suggests long-run relationships within the variables. Our long-run dynamic panel-data estimation, random-effects panel generalized least square regressions, and robust corrected standard error linear regressions findings indicate world energy trilemma and transformative energy developments simultaneously improve economic growth and environmental sustainability. However, investment in non-financial assets and energy use improves economic growth at the expense of environmental sustainability. This suggests that countries should improve energy policy coherence and integrate energy policy actions by balancing the crucial world energy trilemma dimensions to help develop a well-calibrated energy system. Display omitted •World energy trilemma and transformative energy developments PCA indexes formed.•World energy trilemma encourages economic growth and environmental sustainability.•Transformative energy developments promotes environmental sustainability.•Energy use increases economic growth at the expense of environmental sustainability.•Investment in non-financial assets increase economic growth and degrade environment.