We’re good when it comes to drafting policies on sustainable energy, but in terms of execution? We can definitely do better—at least, according to a recent report from the World Bank.
For its Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy 2020 report, the international financial institution measured how policies in renewable energy, energy efficiency and access to electricity and clean cooking have progressed in a total of 138 countries. These areas were specifically chosen as they are part of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7 targets, which aim for accessible, affordable and reliable energy by 2030.
The report classified countries into three groups: Those that scored at least 67 points in all three areas did well, while those with scores between 34 to 66 points were rated average. Scoring even less means those countries are lagging behind others when it comes to drafting and implementing sustainable energy policies.
So what’s our score? Just 51 out of 100 points. We did achieve a high number of 80 points in the electricity access category, but our performance on renewable energy dipped dangerously at 59 points.
Our country earned a perfect score for electricity planning, but data showed that the actual approved energization plan only managed to do half of what was promised. We also lacked geospatial mapping and service-level targets like the number of guaranteed hours of available electricity, which pulled our overall electricity access’ score down.
Although we do have a renewable energy policy framework, the expansion plans and incentives in our country were also deemed mediocre, which led to our low score. What sunk our renewable energy points lower was the complete lack of carbon pricing and monitoring policies in place.
Our energy efficiency score was even lower at 57 points, while we definitely lagged behind many countries in terms of clean cooking— we only gathered eight points in that category.
Overall, we had the same score as Nigeria, while it was India that topped the list with 86 points. Big countries China and the United States also performed poorly, scoring only 56 and 36 points, respectively.
With the findings from this report showing us which areas we’re lagging behind, what we need right now is the government to take the lead in making and enacting improvements in our sustainable energy status in the next few years.