The World Economic Forum casts a very mixed picture of energy transaction, noting that overall they have become less affordable and are no more environmentally sustainable than they were five years ago.

The organisation’s Fostering Effective Energy Transition report uses an Energy Transition Index (ETI) to measure economies in two ways – in system performance and in an economies’ success in putting in place the necessary conditions for transition.

Smaller economies achieved higher scores on readiness, with the UK the only G7 economy in the top 10 of this subset. With the exception of Singapore, all are in Western Europe.

The top ten under the World Economic Forum ETI criteria are:
1 Sweden 74.9
2 Switzerland 74,3
3 Norway 73.4
4 Finland 73.0
5 Denmark 72.2
6 Austria 70.7
7 UK 70.2
8 France 68.6
9 Netherlands 68.5
10 Iceland 68.5


Other large economies give cause for concern, and results show that energy transition in the world’s largest emitters has stalled in the past year. However even China and India, both scoring low in terms of system performance (ranking 97 and 86 respectively), rank considerably higher when it comes to readiness (45 and 61 respectively) suggesting that, while their current outdated energy systems are not ready for transition, an enabling environment is being built to support future transition.

None-the-less the World Economic Forum is calling for urgent action on energy transition. Critical measures to accelerate energy transition include decoupling economic growth from energy consumption, particularly in emerging economies, ‘mainstreaming’ breakthrough technological innovations to improve efficiency and sustainability, and developing addressing equity and justice in energy transition.

Full report here.

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