‘Work needed’ on national sustainable energy systems A ranking of en ...

‘Work needed’ on national sustainable energy systems A ranking of energy sustainability performance by country has revealed that most countries assessed are far from achieving fully sustainable energy systems. The analysis, published as the 2012 Energy Sustainability Index as part of the World Energy Council’s (WEC) 2012 World Energy Trilemma report, Time to get real - the case for sustainable energy policy, finds that most of the 90 countries assessed still have not managed to balance the energy ‘trilemma’ of energy security, social equity and environmental impact mitigation. The WEC argues that countries must balance the trade-offs between the three challenges if they are to provide sustainable energy systems. The analysis states that environmental impact mitigation remains a universal problem; that providing high-quality and affordable energy access remains a significant challenge for developing and emerging economies; and that countries at various stages of development struggle with energy security. Joan MacNaughton CB HonFEI, Executive Chair of the World Energy Trilemma report and President of the Energy Institute, said: ‘Much still needs to be done to make our energy systems sustainable, but there is good news… countries that use a larger share of low-carbon energy such as renewables and nuclear as part of a diversified energy mix tend to perform better. While these top performers also tend to be richer countries, some less affluent ones do also outperform their economic peers. What distinguishes all these countries from the others is that they have more effective and coherent policies.’ Sweden leads the top performing countries in the WEC index with Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Finland, New Zealand, Denmark, Japan and France following respectively. However, the report states that even top performers face challenges, and as countries pass through different stages of development they struggle in specific areas. The report highlights policy as being crucial to a country’s performance. The 2012 World Energy Trilemma report can be downloaded from www.worldenergy.org/publications