All countries ranked in the top 10 are from Western and Northern Europe, and account for 2% of energy-related CO2 emissions, 4% of total energy supply and 2% of the global population. Sweden leads the global rankings, followed by Denmark and Norway. Among the world’s 10 largest economies, only France features in the top 10. The list of top performers in the ETI has remained broadly unchanged over the course of the past decade. Although each country’s energy transition pathway is different, they all share common attributes, including:

High-ranking countries also show high scores on transition readiness because of their strong institutional and regulatory frameworks, their ability to attract capital and investment on a large scale, their innovative business environment and their high level of political commitment on energy transition. Both China and Brazil feature in the top 20, a result of their performance thus far and readiness to continue to transition.

The global average scores for the ETI have increased successively each year from 2014 to 2023, the result of gains across both system performance and transition readiness (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Global average Energy Transition Index and sub-index scores, 2014-2023

Of the 120 countries, 113 have made progress over the last decade but only 55 have improved their scores by more than 10 percentage points. Notably, large emerging centres of demand, such as China, India and Indonesia, have seen these improvements. Only 41 countries have made steady gains over the last decade (defined as consistently above-average performance improvements on the ETI). While this list includes many advanced economies, it also has 14 countries from developing and emerging Europe, developing and emerging Asia, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Qatar and Mexico narrowly miss falling into the category; they made steady gains until 2023 when their progress fell below the average. These insights demonstrate the difficulty of maintaining progress and the energy transition’s inherent complexity.

The top improvers between 2022 and 2023 are Azerbaijan and Kenya. Kenya has typically progressed behind the global average while Azerbaijan has been ahead of it. Both have shown large improvements across several transition readiness parameters, including financial investment, infrastructure and innovation. Joining them among the top improvers is Paraguay, which has made progress every year for a decade, and Zimbabwe, whose score grew by 9% but continues to lag the global average. Importantly, as countries advance, they should achieve a balanced energy system, but only 18% of them have achieved this balance, leaving those without it vulnerable to risks related to energy security, inequality and the consequences of climate change.