City-level ETI scores.xlsx

The global target of limiting the increase in temperature to 1.5°C requires a shift from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy, particularly in urban areas that house over half of the world's population and are major consumers of energy and emitters of carbon. However, cities vary in their energy systems and socioeconomic capacities to transition to renewable energy. To address this heterogeneity, this study proposes an Energy Transition Index (ETI) specifically designed for cities, and applies it to track the progress of energy transition in Chinese cities. The city-level ETI framework is based on the national ETI developed by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and comprises two sub-indexes: the Energy System Performance sub-index, which evaluates the current status of cities' energy systems in terms of energy transition, and the Transition Readiness sub-index, which assesses their socioeconomic capacity for future energy transition. The Energy System Performance sub-index includes two dimensions and seven components, while the Transition Readiness sub-index has four dimensions and eleven components. Each component consists of one or more indicators. The initial version of the dataset includes ETI and its sub-indexes for 282 Chinese cities from 2003 to 2019, with annual updates planned. The spatiotemporal data provided by the dataset facilitates research into the energy transition roadmap for different cities, which can help China achieve its energy transition goals.