We are pleased to share the World Energy Council’s 2026 World Energy Trilemma report, titled Rebalancing World Energy: Trade-Offs and Transformations.
Drawing on dialogue with more than 275 senior energy leaders from 65 countries, the report explores how leaders are rebalancing priorities as energy transitions enter a more complex phase – where the challenge is shifting from deployment alone towards grids, storage, flexibility, markets, institutions and system integration.
It introduces rebalancing as a leadership discipline: continually reassessing energy security, equity and environmental sustainability as circumstances change.
Across regions, five recurring tensions stand out: investing for tomorrow while managing today’s costs; redesigning markets while operating within current realities; strengthening national competitiveness while preserving cross-border interdependence; improving project efficiency while earning social legitimacy; and matching institutional ambition to the capacity available.
But the report is not the end of the conversation.
It provides a starting point for the next round of regional dialogues and our upcoming World Energy Leaders Dialog 30 november-1st december in Paris, co-host with Conseil Français de l’Énergie / World Energy Council, where leaders from across the global energy ecosystem will come together to explore what these shifts mean for leadership and collective action.
About the World Energy Trilemma
The World Energy Council defines the energy trilemma through three core dimensions: Energy Security, Energy Equity, and Environmental Sustainability.
The Trilemma is not a target to be reached but a set of trade-offs to be governed. Progress on one dimension can create pressure on another, and the right balance is never fixed – it moves with a country’s circumstances and its wider operating environment. Managing these trade-offs, deliberately and repeatedly, is what distinguishes energy systems that endure from those that stall.