The UK has tumbled outside yet another independent body’s energy ranking, this time the World Energy Council’s energy trilemma index top 10.
An update to the index, released today, has confirmed that the UK is no longer considered one of the leading global economies in tackling the three core tenets of the ‘energy trilemma’; affordability, security of supply and decarbonisation.
The UK has historically featured among the World Energy Council’s leading countries in this regard, but today’s update has seen it placed on a ‘negative watch list’ alongside other G7 countries including the US and Germany.
This, according to the council, has been the result of significant decisions taken over the last year, particularly frequent cuts to renewables subsidies, the result of the Brexit referendum and how they have impacted on investor confidence.
The report said that the UK’s fall out of the top ten highlighted the “challenges facing the more traditional leading industrialised countries to operate their energy transformation”.
“To maintain a strong Trilemma performance, policymakers must focus on energy market design, regional markets, demand management, and designing an effective carbon price to successfully manage the challenging energy transition,” it said of Europe’s progress in general.
It is not the first independently-produced energy performance list to document the UK’s position on energy policy in the last year, with ‘Big Four’ consultancy firm EY demoting the country outside the top ten of its Renewable Energy Country Attractiveness Index in 2015.