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

2.1
The United Nations Effort on Indicators of Sustainable Development 
In response to decisions taken by the United Nations (UN) Commission on 
Sustainable Development (CSD) and to Chapter 40 of Agenda 21, in 1995 the UN 
Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) began working to produce a 
set of indicators for sustainable development. At the outset, the indicators considered 
the four major dimensions of sustainable development: social, economic, 
environmental and institutional. Within these categories, indicators were classified 
according to their driving force, state and response (DSR) characters following a 
conceptual framework widely used for environmental indicator development. 
However, after national testing, the Expert Group on Indicators of Sustainable 
Development (ISD) changed from the DSR format to policy issues or main themes 
and sub-themes, with energy as a sub-theme with three indicators (annual energy use 
per capita, share of consumption of renewable energy resources and intensity of 
energy use). This was done to better facilitate national policymaking and performance 
measurements. The revised framework also addresses future risks, correlation 
between themes, sustainability goals and basic social needs.
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At one point, the UN ISD package included more than 130 indicators. The latest 
version of the package includes 58 indicators classified into four dimensions, 15 
themes and 38 sub-themes. The number of indicators was greatly restricted when it 
became apparent that a large set of indicators was unwieldy and difficult to use 
effectively. 
2.2
Energy Indicators and Sustainable Development: The Commission on 
Sustainable Development and the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation 
The initial work on energy indicators undertaken by the International Atomic Energy 
Agency (IAEA) with contributions from UNDESA, the International Energy Agency 
(IEA) and other international and national organizations was presented at the ninth 
session of the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD-9) in 2001, under the 
name ‘Indicators for Sustainable Energy Development’ (ISED). During this session 
energy was a major theme. Improving affordability of and accessibility to modern 
energy services for the rural and urban poor as well as promoting less wasteful use of 
energy resources by the rich were among the most pressing issues identified at CSD-
9. The dissemination of information on clean and efficient technologies, good practice 
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UNDESA, 2001. Indicators of Sustainable Development: Guidelines and Methodologies, 
2
nd
edition, September. New York, NY, USA: United Nations Department of Economic and Social 
Affairs. 

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and adequate policies was recognized as an important contribution to providing 
energy for sustainable development. The international community noted that relevant 
information could guide decision makers to suitable policy and energy supply options, 
and that energy indicators were a tool for monitoring the consequences of such 
choices. Decisions taken at CSD-9 pertinent to the refinement of the ISED included 
the identification of the key energy issues of accessibility, energy efficiency, 
renewable energy, advanced fossil fuel technologies, nuclear energy technologies, 
rural energy, and energy and transport. 
Energy was discussed the following year at the World Summit on Sustainable 
Development (WSSD) held in Johannesburg. The international community built on 
decisions taken at CSD-9 and reconfirmed access to energy as important in the 
Millennium Development Goal of halving the proportion of people living in poverty 
by 2015. The WSSD agreed to facilitate access for the poor to reliable and affordable 
energy in the context of larger national policies to foster sustainable development. The 
Summit also called for changes to unsustainable patterns of energy production and 
use. The Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (JPOI) that came out of the Summit 
urges all nations, groups and institutions to take immediate action to achieve the goals 
of sustainable development set out in Agenda 21 and at the Earth Summit +5, and 
further elaborated in the JPOI. 
The core set of energy indicators, now called Energy Indicators for Sustainable 
Development (EISD), has been designed to provide information on current energy-
related trends in a format that aids decision making at the national level in order to 
help countries assess effective energy policies for action on sustainable development. 
The indicators can help to guide the implementation of actions urged at the WSSD, 
namely, (i) to integrate energy into socioeconomic programmes, (ii) to combine more 
renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced energy technologies to meet the 
growing need for energy services, (iii) to increase the share of renewable energy 
options, (iv) to reduce the flaring and venting of gas, (v) to establish domestic 
programmes on energy efficiency, (vi) to improve the functioning and transparency of 
information in energy markets, (vii) to reduce market distortions and (viii) to assist 
developing countries in their domestic efforts to provide energy services to all sectors 
of their populations. 
The indicators should make it easier to see which programmes are necessary for 
sustainable development. This should identify what energy statistics need to be 
collected as well as the necessary scope of regional and national databases.