When geopolitical instability threatens global markets, nations must evaluate how effectively they can shield their economies from severe energy disruptions.

Consider the fallout from the U.S.-led military campaign against Iran. According to calculations by the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), oil and gas importing nations shelled out an additional $330 billion during the six-month window following U.S. and Israeli airstrikes that paralyzed shipping operations through the critical Strait of Hormuz.

The ultimate defense against recurring supply volatility is minimizing dependence on imported fuels. Achieving this requires transitioning vehicles, residential heating, and manufacturing plants to locally produced electricity instead of relying on traditional oil and gas.

However, a newly published index tracking 16 major economies reveals that most national governments excel far more at issuing ambitious electrification pledges than at executing them. China leverages its immense manufacturing might to pull ahead of competitors. Meanwhile, the United States courts stagnation by scaling back federal backing. The United Kingdom presents the most extreme contrast, maintaining some of the most robust policy frameworks in the study alongside a massive chasm between rhetoric and real-world results.

Compiled by the We Mean Business Coalition with backing from the non-profit research organization RMI, the Electrification Competitiveness Index analyzes 52 distinct metrics across 16 countries. The assessment measures progress through two core dimensions: enabling conditions—encompassing regulatory policies, power markets, and electricity pricing that facilitate the transition—and deployment, which tracks the actual volume of electrification achieved.

China dominates the deployment rankings by a wide margin, scaling its electrification five to ten times faster than the United States while standing alone as the only nation to achieve a perfect score for electric vehicle integration.

In contrast, America's early momentum now faces severe headwinds due to deteriorating domestic conditions, with the federal administration actively obstructing the expansion of renewable energy and grid transmission infrastructure. Across Europe, nations like Germany, Italy, and Poland mirror the UK, boasting powerful policy blueprints that fail to translate into tangible ground-level progress, thereby perpetuating reliance on fossil fuels.

Policy Running Ahead Of Delivery

The primary takeaway from the index is a pervasive execution gap. Across all 16 reviewed economies, the median benchmark for enabling conditions sits at 67%, compared to a meager 45% for physical deployment. In fact, 14 out of the 16 evaluated countries score significantly higher on paper policies than on actual deployment outcomes.

María Mendiluce, CEO of the We Mean Business Coalition, emphasizes the shifting landscape of global economics, noting that electrification has become a litmus test for both economic competitiveness and national security. While governments have established adequate regulatory frameworks, the private sector still requires affordable clean energy, reliable grid access, and investment certainty. The true competitive edge now belongs to nations capable of bridging the gap between legislation and physical execution.

This same discrepancy plagues international projections. Last September, the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported that existing technologies could elevate electricity's share of global energy consumption to 33% by 2035 without exceeding the cost of fossil fuels. Yet, under current trajectories, adoption will stall around 30%, meaning the global community is leaving cost-effective energy solutions unutilized and falling short of the upcoming COP31 target of 35%.

Set to unfold in Antalya, Türkiye, the upcoming COP31 climate summit has adopted the slogan "35 by 35," referring to the goal of having electricity satisfy 35% of worldwide final energy demand by 2035, up from roughly 20% today.

Heightened anxieties over global energy security have injected urgency into this objective, underscored by CREA's $330 billion estimate of excess expenses incurred by importers during the Strait of Hormuz maritime blockade.

Furthermore, the IEA estimates that accelerating the shift toward electricity could trim fuel import expenditures by roughly $400 billion annually by 2035.

Four Different Stories Of Deployment

1. A Solid Foundation: China, France, Spain

China, France, and Spain stand out in the index for successfully coupling robust deployment with favorable enabling conditions, maintaining electricity pricing structures that are far more competitive against natural gas than most other evaluated regions. Furthermore, France and Spain benefit from superior grid reliability and clean power generation shares of 95% and 75%, respectively.

China's dominance is equally evident in domestic metrics. Energy think tank Ember estimates that electricity accounted for 29% of China's final energy mix in 2024, compared to roughly 23% in Europe and 21% in the United States. Beijing's current energy strategy targets a 35% share by 2030, putting the nation five years ahead of the COP31 global timeline.

2. Potential For Take-Off: Germany, India, Italy, Poland, U.K.

These territories score notably higher on structural readiness than on tangible rollout. The UK records the widest deficit in the entire index, boasting an 82% score for enabling conditions against a dismal 38% for deployment.

Financial burdens represent the primary roadblock. The UK Climate Change Committee revealed that electricity prices for numerous large-scale industrial consumers outpace natural gas by a factor of four. Alarmingly, electricity's footprint within British industrial energy consumption contracted slightly over the past year.

Germany confronts an entirely different bottleneck. Domestic grid operators were flooded with connection requests totaling 573.5 gigawatts of battery storage for 2025 alone, forcing industrial facilities and data centers to wait behind storage developers.

3. Risk Of Stalling: U.S., Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, South Korea

Within this cohort, deployment figures hover at or above the median, while enabling conditions lag behind. In the United States, over 2 terawatts of pending generation and storage capacity sit stranded in grid connection queues, according to the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, dwarfing the nation's total existing generation capacity of 1.3 terawatts.

Federal policy priorities have experienced a notable pivot as well. Following the congressional termination of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit in September 2025, U.S. EV sales plunged by nearly 25% during the first half of 2026. The administration contends that its energy dominance doctrine will secure reliable, low-cost power derived from domestic oil, gas, coal, and nuclear reserves. Brown University economist Mark Blyth interprets U.S. strategy as an intentional wager on fossil fuels—America's primary structural advantage in energy. Nonetheless, he points out that domestic renewable deployment continues to expand regardless, largely driven by data centers demanding electricity at a pace that traditional gas turbines cannot match.

South Korea registers the second-highest deployment score at 60%, though sluggish EV policies and mounting utility debts threaten to impede future momentum. Ethiopia presents a fascinating anomaly: electric vehicles constituted 60% of new passenger vehicle purchases in 2024 following an outright ban on combustion-engine imports, despite only 60% of the national population having access to reliable electricity.

4. Early-Stage Adoption: Indonesia, The Philippines, South Africa

Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa all sit below the median threshold across both enabling conditions and deployment metrics. Clean energy sources contribute a modest 18% of total generation in Indonesia and South Africa, and 23% in the Philippines. Capital investment into electrical grids across all three nations remains below 0.4% of GDP, falling short of the 0.65% global average.

Electricity continues to command a higher price than natural gas, a phenomenon acutely felt in the UK and Poland. However, the index underscores that cheap power alone cannot drive transformation. Power grids remain a persistent constraint; the IEA asserts that grid expansion and modernization must accelerate at a pace 40% faster than the previous decade's average. Heavy transportation also lags significantly, with zero-emission heavy-duty trucks accounting for a mere 2.3% of European Union sales during the first half of 2026.

Political friction exacerbates these challenges: the upfront expenses of the energy transition manifest immediately, frequently burdening the most vulnerable households, while the long-term financial dividends materialize much later—a hard sell for political leaders appealing to the electorate. This dynamic has catalyzed a political backlash against green initiatives across Europe, where sluggish charging infrastructure rollouts, canceled green steel initiatives, and the collapse of battery manufacturer Northvolt illustrate ambition outpacing execution.

According to the index recommendations, long-term success requires moving past immediate cost concerns. Governments must implement decisive policies that make electricity more cost-effective relative to fossil fuels, inject capital into modernized grid infrastructure, streamline permitting and interconnection timelines, reform electricity markets, and maintain transparent, consistent long-term planning.

Molly Walton, director of energy at the We Mean Business Coalition, explains that the index serves as a diagnostic tool to help nations identify their standing on the electrification roadmap, pinpoint gaps, and emulate international success stories. This allows administrations facing similar hurdles to adopt proven methodologies and concentrate efforts on removing the most critical economic barriers.

As international delegates converge in Antalya next month, they will be urged to endorse the target of meeting 35% of global energy requirements through electricity by 2035. The index indicates that establishing ambitious targets is not the primary hurdle. Numerous nations already possess the requisite policy frameworks; what they lack are affordable energy supplies, robust grid connections, and investor certainty required to convert those policies into physical infrastructure, such as charging networks and electrified manufacturing facilities. China demonstrates what becomes achievable when policy alignment and execution move in tandem, whereas Britain serves as a cautionary tale of the costs incurred when they diverge.

With fuel importers still absorbing the financial shockwaves of the Hormuz crisis, the nations that successfully bridge the divide between intent and execution will prove best equipped to weather future disruptions.