The World Energy Council's Energy Trilemma Index ranks countries onhow well they achieve the energy 'trilemma' balance of security, equity andsustainability and shows New Zealand ranking 9th out of 130comparator countries, up from 10th last year and maintaining its overallbalanced rating of AAB.
This year the top ten ranked countries are Denmark, Switzerland, Sweden, theNetherlands, Germany, France, Norway, Finland, New Zealand and Austria. New Zealand was the best performing countryin the Asia-Pacific region.
BusinessNZ Energy Council Chair David Caygill said that while well placed, this year'sresult highlights the challenges and opportunities facing countries ofachieving an overall balanced approach to energy policy.
"The ranking suggests that New Zealand is in a good position performing relativelybetter on energy security and energy equity than environmental sustainability.
Maintenanceof New Zealand's top ten ranking demonstrates our consistent approach to thepursuit of balanced energy policies. Butthere is room for improvement.
Despite being a world leader in renewable electricity we are ranked 36th in thesub-index of environmental sustainability largely as a result of our carbonemissions performance. Having justratified the Paris Agreement this ranking shows we have room to improve our performancerelative to our top ten peers.
We need to constantly learn from what other countries are doing, but also what wecan improve, regardless of what others do.
The 36th ranking raises important policy questions; how do we achievethe rapid uptake of new technologies, high economic growth and deliver on theenvironmental goals all New Zealanders aspire to, while keeping the economyresilient to a range of future outcomes?
What policy balance do we strike between encouraging greater energy efficiency inour primary industries versus a structural shift towards high value-creating,low energy intensity and low carbon opportunities?
"The BusinessNZ Energy Council's recent report – BEC2050: A deep-dive into 2030 energy targets for New Zealand – isdesigned to aid thinking and provoke debate on these and other questions. It seeks to help companies, consumers andpolicy makers make informed choices that balance energy policy outcomes acrossthe dimensions of energy security, equity and sustainability.
"The deep-dive report can be found here. The full New Zealand Energy Scenarios:Navigating energy futures to 2050 report on which the deep-dive is based can befound here