A Multicriteria Assessment Approach to the Energy Trilemma

The development of sustainable energy systems is pivotal in addressing climate change, but is also a complex and multifaceted task that should take into consideration a wide range of technological and socio-economic issues. The energy trilemma concept acknowledges this complexity and emphasizes the need to achieve a balance among three main dimensions: energy security, energy equity, and environmental sustainability. This study provides a systematic treatment of the energy trilemma at the country level. A novel multicriteria assessment framework is employed to evaluate the related performance of countries. Such an evaluation provides useful results for policy making, as it enables the examination of the status of each country and the challenges that it faces in achieving energy sustainability. The obtained empirical results are analyzed over time as well as considering the characteristics of the countries.