Energy Library

Oct. 8, 2020

This year,  the World Energy Council (WEC) celebrates the 10th anniversary of the World Energy Trilemma Index. Since 2010, the Report has provided an independent and objective rating of a country’s energy policy and performance using verified global and country-specific data to assess management of three core dimensions: Energy Security, Energy Equity and Environmental Sustainability. The World Energy Trilemma Index enables countries to keep track of their own progress and to learn with and from each other about what’s working and what’s not.

The Index analyses historic trends to enable energy policy makers and stakeholders to track their policy performance overtime and comparing with others to explore how to improve. Key highlights:

● Eight countries achieved the top AAA balance grade, representing top quartile performance in every dimension.
● Improvement in Sustainability and Security go hand in hand. Sustained investments in wind and solar mean countries with the highest overall scores, such as Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, have simultaneously reduced emissions while diversifying their energy systems.
● Of the three dimensions, Equity has seen the greatest improvements since 2000, driven by policy-led efforts to increase access to energy in developing countries. The three countries with the highest improvement in the overall Trilemma score are Cambodia, Myanmar and Kenya primarily as a result of their performance on Energy Equity.
● The highest scoring countries on Security have diversified energy systems and benefit from significant natural resource endowments. The three strongest performers – Canada, Finland and Romania – have large hydropower resources and are diversifying their energy mix through investment in solar and wind.
● The rate of improvement in overall Trilemma performance generally increases as the transition progresses – typically, performance in all three dimensions are advancing and accelerating. Read more

Download the Executive Summary, or the full report.