Energy Transition Report

• 27 Mar 2019

World Economic Forum has recently published Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2019

• The report contains the Energy Transition Index (ETI), which compares the energy sectors of 115 countries and analyses their readiness for energy transition.

Report Findings

• Global
  • Energy systems have globally become less affordable and less environmentally sustainable than they were five years ago.
  • Access to energy has improved and currently, less than 1 billion people are living without access to electricity. On average, 135 million people gained access to electricity each year between 2014 and 2016.
  • The biggest challenge facing attempts to future proof global energy demands is the lack of readiness among the world’s largest emitters.
  • In 2017, global CO2 emissions grew after remaining stagnant for three years. CO2 emissions from fuel combustion grew in more than half of the countries as demand increased from the residential and transportation sectors.
  • Coal consumption increased in 2018, after declining for three years along with an increase in commodity prices and slower-than-needed improvements in energy intensity this has contributed to the slowdown in Energy Transition.
  • Fossil fuels’ share of total primary energy supply at 81 percent is constant over the past three decades.
  • Environmental sustainability of energy production has improved marginally, indicating a general lack of substantive progress.
• India
  • India is amongst the countries with high pollution levels and has a relatively high CO2 emission intensity in its energy system.
  • Despite this, India has made significant progress in improving energy access in recent years.
  • India has made fast progress towards universal electrification due to strong political commitment, a stable policy regime, use of grid expansion and decentralized generation sources, and a supportive environment for investment in infrastructure.
  • Global coal consumption grew in 2017 due to an increase in demand in the Asia-Pacific region, including in India and China.

Energy Transition Index

• Energy transition index ranks countries on how well they are able to balance energy security and access with environmental sustainability and affordability.
• ETI has ranked 115 economies covering 40 indicators.
• Sweden is at the top followed by Switzerland and Norway in the top three.
• Among major economies, the United Kingdom (UK) is ranked seventh. Singapore has been ranked thirteenth, while Germany, Japan, and the US have bagged the seventeenth, eighteenth and the twenty-seventh place respectively.
• India has moved up two places from last year to rank 76th on a global energy transition index.
• China is ranked lower than India at the 82nd position.
• India is the second best in the BRICS bloc of emerging economies, with Brazil being the best at 46th place globally.
• However, India is the only amongst the five economies to improve its rank since last year.