15 February 2017: The World Bank has released a report scoring sustainable energy policies in 111 countries. The report, titled ‘RISE (Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy),’ examines policies to support energy access, renewables and energy efficiency.

According to the World Bank, RISE aims to help governments assess if they have a policy and regulatory framework in place to drive progress on sustainable energy and identifies areas “where more can be done to attract private investments.” RISE also enables countries to measure their performance against others, and will allow them to track progress over time. It will thereby support their progress towards the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7 (afforable and clean energy) and 13 (climate action).

RISE finds that an increasing number of developing countries, including Mexico, China, Turkey, India, Vietnam, Brazil, and South Africa, are emerging as leaders in sustainable energy, with robust policies to support energy access, renewables and energy efficiency. However, the report also finds there is significant room for improvement across all regions, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.

RISE finds that many countries have done little to create a regulatory environment favorable to accelerate the diffusion of solar home systems, despite plummeting costs of solar panels.

Other key findings of the report include that: Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s least electrified continent and 40% of countries in the region have barely taken any of the policy measures needed to accelerate energy access, which relates to SDG target 7.1; many countries have done little to create a regulatory environment favorable to accelerate the diffusion of solar home systems, despite plummeting costs of solar panels; and in many countries, particularly in the developing world, policymakers are not paying nearly as much attention to energy efficiency, which relates to target 7.3, as to renewable energy.

The report has 27 indicators and 80 sub-indicators and examines over 3,000 laws, regulations and policy documents. RISE was produced as a contribution to Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL). The data is freely available on an online platform that enables users to customize the information by country and policy framework.

The World Bank will release a sister report to RISE, the ‘Global Tracking Framework,’ to track how countries are performing on sustainable energy goals. This report will be released during the Sustainable Energy for All Forum, which is scheduled to take place in New York, US, from 3-5 April 2017. [Publication: RISE (Regulatory Indicators for Sustainable Energy)] [RISE Online Platform] [Sustainable Energy for All] [Sustainable Energy for All Forum] [World Bank Press Release]