Multidimensional assessment of energy transition and policy implications

This study evaluated quantitatively the global energy transition using 13 indicators across four dimensions: availability, affordability, environmental sustainability, and technology development. The composite scores on the four dimensions and indicators were measured by the average weight and geometric mean method. The results show that the total average scores of 88 countries increased from 0.15 in 1990 to 0.24 in 2020. Although the transition process is slow, its trend is clear, showing obvious imbalances in time and space. 88 sample countries were divided into four echelons by 0.2 score steps. The scores on availability and affordability dimensions maintained steady growth over the time series, with the countries rising most quickly in rank being mainly Asian emerging economies and energy-exporting countries. The scores showed a diversity of change on environmental sustainability and technology development dimensions, where the countries that rose in rank most quickly were mainly distributed in the European region. Overall, the cleanliness and sustainability of energy use is the critical factor affecting energy transition, and technological progress will accelerate this transition process. Policy implications and recommendations for energy transition of China are drawn from the empirical results. This approach can also be extended to investigate similar issues in other countries.