Europe’s energy information problem

Europe suffers from an under-provision of energy information. Comprehensive information on topics like the take-up of heat pumps, industrial energy consumption and prices and battery connections to the electricity grid, is either not available in Europe in a timely manner, or not available at the level of granularity, reliability and consistency needed for informed decision-making.

This is a major problem as the European energy system is evolving rapidly driven by climate considerations, security of energy supply imperatives and growing economic security concerns. Energy policy choices are complex and have major economic and social impacts, clear information is necessary for their sensible and objective evaluation.

This event explored the severity of Europe's energy information problem and discussed possible solutions for filling it, as well as existing initiatives. We looked at the case of the United States, where an Energy Information Administration was formed in the 1970s to address precisely this issue. 

This event is linked to the Policy brief 'Europe’s energy information problem' by authors Ben McWilliams, Simone Tagliapietra and Georg Zachmann.