India Energy Transition Ranking 2025: WEF Report Places India at 71st

India energy transition ranking falls to 71st in WEF 2025 report despite efficiency gains, highlighting key challenges in infrastructure and readiness.

India Ranks 71st in WEF’s 2025 Energy Transition Index, Despite Efficiency Gains

Global Snapshot & India’s Plunge
In the Fostering Effective Energy Transition 2025 report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) — jointly published with Accenture — India has fallen to 71st place among 118 countries in the annual Energy Transition Index (ETI), down from 63rd in 2024 The ETI assesses nations across three core pillars: energy security, sustainability, and equity, alongside their readiness for transition.

Leading the Index: Scandinavia Dominates
Sweden retains the top position, followed by Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland, reaffirming the robust performance of Northern European countries in clean energy leadership

Key Drivers Behind India’s Decline
While India’s overall ranking slipped, significant progress was noted in energy efficiency and investment capacity—areas where the country witnessed the greatest annual improvement among large economies Substantial strides in lowering energy intensity and methane emissions reflected in improved performance metrics

Access, Equity & Infrastructure Strengthening
Over the last decade, India has made commendable progress in improving energy access and equity—especially in rural regions—expanding clean fuels, and strengthening regulatory frameworks to support renewable energy investments Despite these efforts, persistent challenges remain in grid reliability, import dependence, and readiness to scale up infrastructure large-scale renewables .

Global Context & Leading Economies
The top five global economies—China (ranked 12th), the USA (17th), EU, Japan, and India—are pivotal in driving the global energy transition due to their economic output, energy demand, and emissions footprint

Challenges in a Growing Transition Landscape
Globally, although 77 out of 118 nations recorded improvements, only 28% advanced holistically across all three ETI dimensions Barriers such as geopolitical friction, gaps in clean energy investment, and poor linkage between innovation and deployment risk hampering the transition momentum

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🧭 Why This News Matters

Strategic Relevance for Exams
This index is critical for aspirants preparing for roles in governance, banking, civil services, and defence. Understanding India’s ranking contextualises policy direction and global expectations in climate action, energy security, and SDG alignment.

Insight into India’s Energy Policies
The report’s analysis of India’s energy efficiency gains, renewable investment, and methane emissions reduction directly links to current governance priorities: facilitating rural energy access, enhancing grid reliability, and pivoting from import dependence to domestic renewables.

Global Comparisons Help in Analytical Essays
Aspirants can leverage the contrast between India’s rise in efficiency and its overall rank drop to compare policy frameworks, investments, and technological readiness. The Scandinavian example in the index offers a precedent for structured, equity-driven transitions.

Practical Implications
For teaching roles, energy transition topics enrich curriculum content. In banking and railways exams, knowledge of financing clean infrastructure and climate risk supports sectoral planning. Defence candidates benefit from understanding energy security’s link to national resilience.

Policy Advocacy & Career Aspirations
Civil service aspirants explore why investment gaps and import reliance persist despite positive momentum. This helps frame policy briefs, interviews, and essay arguments on sustainable transitions — especially in India’s net-zero India by 2070 plan.

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📚 Historical Context

Evolution of ETI & India’s Entry
WEF introduced the Energy Transition Index in 2017, benchmarking nations on energy system health and readiness. India debuted mid-ranking and showed strong growth for several years prior

Milestones in India’s Energy Strategy
– 2016 Paris Agreement: India pledged 40% of energy from non-fossil sources by 2030.
– MNRE Rise: The Ministry of New & Renewable Energy gained prominence in the early 1980s, setting policy agenda
– Capacity Goals: Ambitious targets included 175 GW non-fossil capacity by 2022 and 500 GW by 2030; as of October 2024, renewable capacity stood at 203 GW, ~46% of total generation mix .

Growing Investment & Infrastructure
India is tendering 50 GW of solar and wind hybrid projects in FY24 to accelerate its clean energy trajectory Meanwhile, energy intensity and methane emission benchmarks steadily improved.

Challenges Restricting Progress
Despite policy progress, coal still supplies over 60% of electricity. Transition readiness remains weak due to delays in grid modernisation, storage infrastructure, financing bottlenecks, and low human capital investment

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📊 Key Takeaways from India’s 2025 Energy Transition Rank

FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. What is the Energy Transition Index (ETI)?
The ETI is an annual report released by the World Economic Forum (WEF) that ranks countries based on their energy system performance and readiness to transition to sustainable, secure, and affordable energy.

Q2. Why did India’s rank drop in the ETI 2025 report?
India dropped from 63rd to 71st despite gains in efficiency and investment capacity, due to challenges in grid reliability, import dependency, and lower transition readiness.

Q3. Which countries are leading the ETI 2025 rankings?
The top five countries are Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Norway, and Switzerland, all known for their advanced and equitable energy systems.

Q4. What are India’s renewable energy goals?
India aims to achieve 500 GW of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, with 175 GW originally targeted by 2022. As of late 2024, renewable energy accounted for 46% of installed capacity.

Q5. How does this ranking impact government job exams?
The ETI ranking is important for aspirants appearing for civil services, teaching, banking, and other government exams as it reflects India’s global positioning in climate governance, energy policy, and SDG progress.

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