WEF global energy index
Bangladesh moves 10 steps up
BSS
Bangladesh has made a significant progress in energy management, moving 10 steps up in a major global energy index, prepared and released by the World Economic Forum (WEF), reports BSS.
The Geneva-based global WEF in its Energy Architecture Performance Index (EAPI) 2016 put Bangladesh at 106, which was nine notches up from 116 position of the EAPI 2015.
Besides the progress in the ranking, the country also achieved higher overall score for better energy management towards economic growth and development, environmental sustainability and energy access and security.
This year the country earned a total score of 0.50 on the scale from 0-1.Last year, the score was 0.45.
The progress also made in all the three major areas including economic growth and development (from 0.52 to 0.63), environmental sustainability (from 0.39 to 0.44) and energy access and security (from 0.44 to 0.45).
Switzerland topped the index, with scoring 0.79 when Norway scored 0.78 to get the second position.
Sweden, France and Denmark were also among the top five positions, with each of the countries scoring 0.76.
Conversely, Bahrain was put at the bottom of the index, which included 126 countries. The country scored 0.36. Lebanon (0.43), Yemen Republic (0.44),Haiti (0.44) and Ethiopia (0.44) were four other countries among the bottom five.
Since it was launched, the EAPI has contributed to the global benchmarking of energy systems, highlighting topical energy issues and providing guidance on making energy transitions more effective.
It has provided a tool for decision makers to help better understand energy systems, and to assess the current energy architecture performance of individual nations.
This years report includes the findings from benchmarking 126 countries on 18 indicators covering energy security and access, sustainability, and contribution to economic growth and development.
The EAPI also points to the strengths of countries beyond the usual suspects. For example, Albania (17th) and Paraguay (21st) boasted fully decarbonised electricity generation, which is reflected in above average environmental sustainability scores.
According to the EAPI, the worlds largest economies are still struggling to achieve balanced high performance in their energy systems. With the exception of France (4th), none of the 12 largest countries by gross domestic product made it into the top 10 performers.
The EAPI also revealed that diversification to new energy sources is creating new risks and opportunities that would require significant market change and government mechanisms to ensure security of supply and access.
It suggested that governments should be receptive to new opportunities and risks to energy security resulting from developments in the energy sector, surrounding technology and international landscape.
Governments should ultimately take responsibility for ensuring energy security in the short and long term it said, noting that companies play a critical role because investors, owners and operators of energy infrastructure would be essential to reaping the benefits of new technologies.
