Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies International Atomic Energy Agency United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs International Energy Agency Eurostat European Environment Agency

1. INTRODUCTION 
‘Sustainable development’ has been defined best by the Brundtland Commission as 
‘development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of 
future generations to meet their own needs’.
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Adequate and affordable energy supplies 
have been key to economic development and the transition from subsistence 
agricultural economies to modern industrial and service-oriented societies. Energy is 
central to improved social and economic well-being, and is indispensable to most 
industrial and commercial wealth generation. It is key for relieving poverty, 
improving human welfare and raising living standards. But however essential it may 
be for development, energy is only a means to an end. The end is good health, high 
living standards, a sustainable economy and a clean environment. No form of energy 
— coal, solar, nuclear, wind or any other — is good or bad in itself, and each is only 
valuable in as far as it can deliver this end. 
Much of the current energy supply and use, based, as it is, on limited resources of 
fossil fuels, is deemed to be environmentally unsustainable. There is no energy 
production or conversion technology without risk or without waste. Somewhere along 
all energy chains — from resource extraction to the provision of energy services — 
pollutants are produced, emitted or disposed of, often with severe health and 
environmental impacts. Even if a technology does not emit harmful substances at the 
point of use, emissions and wastes may be associated with its manufacture or other 
parts of its life cycle. Combustion of fossil fuels is chiefly responsible for urban air 
pollution, regional acidification and the risk of human-induced climate change. The 
use of nuclear power has created a number of concerns, such as the storage or disposal 
of high-level radioactive waste and the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The non-
commercial use of biomass in some developing countries contributes to desertification 
and loss of biodiversity. 
Moreover, about one-third of the world’s population still relies on the use of animal 
power and non-commercial fuels. Some 1.7 billion people have no access to 
electricity. Many areas in the world have no reliable and secure energy supplies. This 
lack of access to modern energy services severely limits socioeconomic development 
— an integral part of sustainable development. Nonetheless, because of improved 
technology and an increased understanding of the effects and impacts of energy and 
energy systems, a developing country today can make the transition from an 
agricultural to an industrial economy with much lower costs and with less 
environmental damage than today’s developed countries were subjected to during 
their transition. 
Achieving sustainable economic development on a global scale will require the 
judicious use of resources, technology, appropriate economic incentives and strategic 
policy planning at the local and national levels. It will also require regular monitoring 
of the impacts of selected policies and strategies to see if they are furthering 
sustainable development or if they should be adjusted. It is important to be able to 
measure a country’s state of development and to monitor its progress or lack of 
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WCED (World Commission on Environment and Development), 1987. Our Common Future. 
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 

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progress towards sustainability. First, policymakers need to know their country’s 
current status concerning energy and economic sustainability, what needs to be 
improved and how these improvements can be achieved. Second, it is important for 
policymakers to understand the implications of selected energy, environmental and 
economic programmes, policies and plans, and their impacts on the shaping of 
development and on the feasibility of making this development sustainable. Third, 
inevitably there will be trade-offs. In short, there is an imminent need for informed 
and balanced choices to be made on policy, investment and corrective action. 
When choosing energy fuels and associated technologies for the production, delivery 
and use of energy services, it is essential to take into account economic, social and 
environmental consequences. Policymakers need methods for measuring and 
assessing the current and future effects of energy use on human health, human society, 
air, soil and water. They need to determine whether current energy use is sustainable 
and, if not, how to change it so that it is. This is the purpose of the energy indicators 
presented in this report, which address important issues within three of the major 
dimensions of sustainable development: economic, social and environmental. 
The indicators are not merely data; rather, they extend beyond basic statistics to 
provide a deeper understanding of the main issues and to highlight important relations 
that are not evident using basic statistics. They are essential tools for communicating 
energy issues related to sustainable development to policymakers and to the public, 
and for promoting institutional dialogue. Each set of indicators expresses aspects or 
consequences of the production and use of energy. Taken together, the indicators give 
a clear picture of the whole system, including interlinkages and trade-offs among 
various dimensions of sustainable development, as well as the longer-term 
implications of current decisions and behaviour. Changes in the indicator values over 
time mark progress or lack of progress towards sustainable development.
The same value for a given energy indicator might not mean the same thing for two 
different countries. The meaning will depend on the state of development of each 
country, the nature of its economy, its geography, the availability of indigenous 
energy resources and so on. Caution, therefore, needs to be applied when using such 
indicators for cross-country comparisons. Nonetheless, changes in the value of each 
indicator over time will help to quantify the progress of each country.
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Instead of 
relying on abstract analysis, policymakers will have a simple set of figures to guide 
their decisions and monitor the results of their policies. 
Consider an example from medicine. A doctor can evaluate a patient’s health using a 
handful of numbers: blood pressure, pulse rate, weight-to-height ratio, cholesterol 
level and so on. By watching how these numbers change over time, the doctor can 
advise the patient whether his or her health is improving or deteriorating. This will 
help the patient to choose the best diet, exercise regimen and medicine. Of course, the 
numbers do not mean the same thing for all patients. A naturally stocky person, even 
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Indicators are useful for monitoring progress towards specific country goals. For example, to reach 
an annual limit on a set of emissions from the energy sector, it would be sensible to identify the 
values of appropriate indicators that would be necessary to meet this goal. With knowledge of the 
energy sector, policymakers can identify the indicators over which they have the most control. 
Progress is then more easily monitored and policy is often more easily implemented by using these 
indicators rather than focusing solely on the goal. 

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in perfect health, will have a higher weight-to-height ratio than a naturally slight 
person; some people naturally have rather high blood pressure. But by monitoring the 
numbers over time, the doctor can advise different patients on their progress towards 
good health. 
The indicators presented here constitute a core set of Energy Indicators for 
Sustainable Development (EISD) with corresponding methodologies and guidelines 
useful to policymakers, energy analysts and statisticians. Some indicators focus on the 
delivery of essential energy services for reducing poverty and improving living 
conditions, while other indicators focus on environmental effects. It is important to 
take not only the economic but also these social and environmental issues into account 
when deciding on policies. The role of the analyst is to select, weigh and present to 
policymakers appropriate indicators for the situation in their own country so as to 
foster development in a sustainable manner. 
Each of the EISD presented in this report might, in fact, represent a set of several 
indicators, as many of the issues touched on are best analysed using a group of related 
indicators.