Index Commentary

The Congo (Democratic Republic) improves by eight places in the Index to rank 69. Environmental performance slightly increases due to the maintaining of low CO2 emissions in electricity and heat generation relative to peer countries. The weak performance in social equity further deteriorates (rank 91) with changes for the worse across all indicators and still only 30% of the population having access to electricity. A rise in energy security is driven by more diversified electricity production which outweighs the decrease in the wholesale margin on gasoline. The positive energy consumption growth, necessary for the economic and social development of the Congo (Democratic Republic), presents a challenge for the energy security dimension. The country scores very poorly across all indicators in the contextual dimensions. It now occupies the last rank in the political and social dimension and ranks only slightly better in economic strength (rank 88).