Today the World Energy Council, in partnership with Oliver Wyman, unveiled the latest progress for almost 130 countries on developing policies for Energy Security, Equity and Environmental Sustainability.

The 2019 World Energy Trilemma Index, created by the World Energy Council, in partnership with global consultancy Oliver Wyman, a business of Marsh & McLennan Companies, provides an objective rating of national energy policy and performance across three dimensions: Energy Security, Energy Equity and the Environmental Sustainability of Energy Systems.

Launched today during the 24th World Energy Congress in Abu Dhabi, UAE, the World Energy Trilemma Report and Index provide a ranking of countries’ energy performance using global and national data. New this year is the analysis of historic trends, which will give policy makers an opportunity to track their policy performance over time. The new World Energy Trilemma methodology includes indexation and scalability.

Key highlights:

• 10 countries achieve the top AAA balance grade, representing top quartile performance in every dimension.
• There has been a general trend of improving energy policy performance since 2000 — nearly 120 countries have been improving their overall Trilemma scores over the 20-year period while only 9 countries have seen their overall performance decline.
• The historic analysis shows that the “Trilemma” of balancing the differing policy priorities remains relevant with no country having consistently improved in each dimension every year since 2000.
• The rate of improvement in overall Trilemma performance increases as the transition progresses – globally, performance in all three dimensions is advancing and accelerating.

Dr. Angela Wilkinson, Senior Director Scenarios and Business Insights, World Energy Council: “For the very first time, the World Energy Trilemma Index provides new insights into energy policy performance over time. Since the turn of the century, there has been a positive trend with nearly 130 countries improving their Trilemma performances. An integrated and coherent policy pathfinding approach is essential in managing robust transitions. Every policy maker can and should use the Index as a unique and useful tool to establish their national baseline and explore how best to improve their energy policy performance.”

Francois Austin, Partner and Global Head of Energy, Oliver Wyman: “The 2019 Trilemma Index shows that the significantly improved nations are undergoing a faster-paced energy transition by balancing policy, corporate action, national resource usage and changes to individual behavior with environmental concerns.  Looking at these trends in aggregate as well as at the national and regional level can give policymakers and business leaders direction to shape the future of energy.”

Comprehensive data and analytical insights are necessary tools for policymakers to develop a coherent approach to the global energy future. To make these insights widely available, the World Energy Council and Oliver Wyman also launched a new Trilemma interactive online tool featuring countries’ energy profiles and Trilemma performance since the year 2000.

The Trilemma Index and interactive online tool feature a variety of findings about the state of energy around the world. Please review at www.trilemma.worldenergy.org

• Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark are the top three rated countries across all three Trilemma dimensions in 2019. These countries have maintained consistent and balanced performance coupled with steady economic and population growth for several years.
• Cambodia, Myanmar and the Dominican Republic have shown the biggest improvements in the overall Trilemma over the past 20 years, as a result of a focus on electrification, energy generation diversity, and infrastructure investment.
• While the top Environmental Sustainability performers in 2019 are also Switzerland, Sweden and Denmark, counterintuitively China and Poland have significantly improved and are rapidly and tangibly decarbonizing, making the greatest change to their 2000 baseline Sustainability performance.
• The rate of improvement in overall Trilemma performance also appears to be increasing – half of the countries have consistently improved overall scores since 2015, while fewer than 20 countries consistently improved scores since 2000.