Arbitrariness in Multidimensional Energy Security Indicators

Abstract

Energy security (ES) has emerged as an issue of great importance in recent years. Nevertheless, the applied concepts of ES are rather vague and many methodologies have been proposed to construct ES indicators. Among these, composite indicators are very popular despite being affected by several methodological choices that often result in lack of robustness of the rankings involved. From a critical analysis of the methodological characteristic of ES composite indicators this study contributes to the debate on the construction of ES composite indicators by providing a better understanding of the various methods that are available. The analysis frames the ES definitions employed on multidimensional indicators and deals with the methodological implications of including the concept of sustainability.