Energy Transition Index and World Energy Trilemma Index as an energy transition’s pace measure for policy-making using the example of Poland

Abstract

The monitoring of the energy transition is a complex and complicated process due to its nature, which involves many technical, economic, social and environmental aspects. Thus, it is challenging to create a numerical measure to describe each country's progress in implementing the energy transition. The aim of this article is to characterise the Energy Transition Index and World Energy Trilemma Index, and present their results, together with a discussion of Poland's position in comparison with other countries. The above-mentioned indicators are globally acceptable and reliable measures of the pace and progress of the energy transition. The use of energy transition metrics is a useful tool to facilitate decision-making in the area of energy and climate policy. Nevertheless, it must be stressed policy-making must not rely just on indicators without a deeper understanding of given index and their methodology. The individual context of a country is a key factor to understand the indicator of energy transition's pace, thus the importance of this component of the index should be increased. Poland's position in both rankings is relatively low, especially when compared to countries in the Central-Eastern Europe region. The main reasons for the low ratings are the dependence on coal and the need for decarbonisation, the low share of RES generation and the low flexibility of the electric power system.