2015 Energy Trilemma Index: Benchmarking the sustainability of national energy systems

The Energy Trilemma Index, produced in partnership with global management consultancy Oliver Wyman, along with the Global Risk Centre of its parent Marsh & McLennan Companies, is a comparative ranking of 130 countries, benchmarking the sustainability of energy systems and awarding countries with a balanced score, highlighting how well countries manage the trade-offs between the three trilemma goals. Together with its companion, the World Energy Trilemma report, the Index proves an effective tool to assist policymakers as they set climate and development goals, businesses as they set their medium and long-term strategies and investors.

The Index also includes a ‘watch list’, highlighting countries that are expected to display significant changes in trilemma performance over the next few years, in light of recent policy changes, unscheduled incidents or undealt with structural issues. In 2015, South Africa and the US join Germany, Italy, Japan and the UK on negative watch, whilst the Philippines and Serbia are put on positive watch, alongside Mexico and the United Arab Emirates.

Now in its fifth edition, the 2015 Index shows signs of progress for all dimensions of the energy trilemma, although it remains a struggle for most countries to develop a balanced approach, with only two countries out of 130 obtaining a ‘AAA’ balance score.

While the transition towards sustainable, balanced energy systems is slowly occurring, progress can be sped up by creating robust and stable policy frameworks. In the run-up to the 21st Conference of the Parties (COP21), the Index supports the messages from the World Energy Council welcoming the bottom-up ‘Intended Nationally Determined Contributions’ process and emphasising the need for strong national energy policy frameworks based on a trilemma approach to effectively implement international objectives. The 2015 World Energy Trilemma: priority actions on climate change and how to balance the trilemma report recommends a meaningful agreement supported by a focus on clearly identified action areas that enable and accelerate the transition towards low-carbon energy systems.

A full set of country profiles is available as an interactive tool on the website.