India Slips to Rank 71 on World Economic Forum's Energy Transition Index

The Wire

19-06-2025

From a rank of 63 in 2024, India has now slipped to rank 71 on the World Economic Forum (WEF)'s Energy Transition Index (ETI), which ranks countries on their progress towards energy transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
However, the report that compared the annual progress of 118 countries also noted that India had advanced in energy efficiency and investment capacity.
The ETI is a tool developed by the WEF, an international non-profit for public-private cooperation set up in 1971, to quantify the yearly progress of nations in energy transition – the move from high carbon-emitting fuels such as coal to what are generally considered cleaner and renewable fuels such as solar power.
The Forum takes into account two main aspects to put together the Index.
One is 'system performance', which includes three factors – energy security (the presence of a stable and resilient energy supply through developing a diversity of energy sources as well as grid and power supply reliability), equity (wherein there is access to energy for all, including consumers and industries) and sustainability (promoting energy sources that have lower impacts on the environment such as lower carbon footprints).
The second is 'transition readiness', which includes regulation (legal structures that facilitate energy transition), infrastructure, education, innovation and investment capacities.
The Index used 43 indicators under these broad categories using data from multiple sources and organisations, and scored countries on a scale of 0 to 100.
In 2025, 77 out of 118 countries (65%) recorded an increase in their overall ETI scores, with an average gain of 1.1% that signals 'a broad, though uneven, recovery in transition momentum', the Index report published on Wednesday (June 18) said.
Overall, advanced economies dominated the ETI rankings, accounting for 16 of the index's top 20 performers.
The top four are all Nordic countries: Sweden, followed by Finland, Denmark and Norway. Sweden, ranked first in the Index, scored 77.5, and had a system performance score of 77 and a transition readiness score of 78.1.
How India fared
At rank 71, India scored 53.3 on the Index. India's system performance score was 60.4 and transition readiness score 42.7.
Major economies 'showed selective gains with potential to lead', the Index report noted.
China topped the 'Emerging Asia' category which India is also part of, with a 2.2% year-on-year ETI score gain and the fifth-highest transition readiness score globally, which per the report, was 'driven by strong innovation ecosystems and financial capacity'.
The report noted that in the 2025 Index, India advanced in 'energy intensity, methane emissions and regulations and financial investments'.
It also claimed that over the past decade, India had made 'significant strides in increasing equity through greater access to energy and clean fuels, while also improving energy regulations and investment in renewable and other clean-energy technologies'.
However, it does not provide details on how India did this.
Among the challenges that India faces are a consistent improvement in grid reliability, energy access for rural areas and further reducing dependence on imported energy.
'Further investment in infrastructure, renewables, labour force development and financing conditions could help boost the country's energy transition,' the report noted.
Overall, the report noted that one of the main challenges that several nations in Asia still face is their huge reliance on fossil fuels.
'While the ETI top ten continue to offer strong examples of long-term leadership, it is the top five largest economies – China, the US, the EU, Japan and India – that will ultimately determine the pace and direction of the global energy transition due to their sheer size,' the report said.
The report also underlined that several 'disruptions' – geopolitical, economic and technological – exposed vulnerabilities in global energy systems, thus 'heightening the urgency of securing more resilient, adaptive energy strategies'.
These included geopolitical tensions that have intensified, including in the Middle East and Africa.
Top among the global risk factors affecting energy transition are armed state conflicts, followed by extreme weather events and geoeconomic confrontation (such as the use of sanctions, tariffs and investment screening).