Energy indicators: crucial tool towards sustainability assessment

Abstract

Energy has been considered an intrinsic factor to attain Sustainable Development (SD). However, it has not always been viewed, projected or recognized within sustainability’s scope. To address this issue, the use of indicators, namely Energy Indicators for Sustainable Development (EISD), allows to convey to policy-makers multidimensional implications of energy related decision-making. Besides contributing to assess current energy trends at a national level, this tool, contextualized within a country’s economic and energy mix, allows to establish a comparison between different countries. This effectively contributes to identifying common concerns and strategies to overcome barriers towards sustainable development. This paper compares the path to SD in Portugal and Brazil by making use of the EISD framework.