The energy transition "has plateaued amid the global energy crisis and geopolitical volatilities" and is not moving at pace to meet Paris agreement goals, a report from the World Economic Forum (WEF) found today.
The world has made "significant strides towards transitioning to low-carbon energy systems" over the past decade, though not at the pace required to hit net zero emissions by 2050, the WEF said. While progress has been made on "clean energy", a renewed focus on energy security has posed a challenge to the equity of the energy transition, it warned.
The WEF measured 120 countries against criteria including sustainability — which takes into account decarbonisation and energy efficiency — equity and security. Universal access to affordable, reliable, sustainable energy by 2030 is a key UN goal.
Nearly every country covered has made improvements between 2014 and 2023, but there was "only marginal growth in the past three years", the WEF said. Change over 2022-23 was broadly less positive than from 2021-22, the report found.
The gap between advanced economies and emerging and developing countries in Asia, central and eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa has "gradually narrowed" over the past 10 years, the report found. But the 10 highest-scoring countries were all European. The Nordics were most advanced, with Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland making up the top four and Iceland coming sixth. The 10 lowest-scoring countries were in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, the Middle East and sub-Saharan Africa.
The report noted a boost in decarbonisation from recent and substantial packages such as the US' Inflation Reduction Act, Japan's green transformation programme and several EU measures including the bloc's green deal industrial plan. But these also risk a "harmful subsidy race where advanced economies with greater fiscal power might emerge as winners" and emerging economies struggle to compete, it added.
The topic of an equitable energy transition, borne out in calls for sufficient climate finance, has defined recent multilateral climate talks. Investment in "clean energy" in emerging and developing economies must reach between $2.2 trillion/yr and $2.8 trillion/yr by the early 2030s to meet rising energy needs and Paris agreement targets, the IEA said earlier this month.
