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Thresholds can act as our “alarm systems,” enabling us to take preventative action. Targets indicate Module
goals for performance, and enable us to monitor positive progress towards the goal. Targets
are often used for projects when sustainable development or improving the system is a goal 4
(Segnestam 2002).

A limitation of performance targets is lack of scientific information that tells us what the actual target
should be. In place of empirical data, targets are sometimes determined by consensus based on best
available knowledge, which means the chosen targets may or may not be the most appropriate ones
for the system. Nevertheless, targets developed in this way can be useful mechanisms for mobilizing Abu Dhabi, UAE
strategic action at the policy level.

Globally, performance indicators are used to assist countries or regions in monitoring their compliance
with globally agreed-upon goals and targets. A well-known example is the Millennium Development
Goals, defined by the UN General Assembly in 2000.

Trend analysis

Trend analysis is instrumental in understanding how the data are functioning over time, sometimes
against targets, baselines and/or thresholds. Various possibilities exist to present the trends, which can
easily lead to different interpretations and conclusions. For example, the presentation of an indicator as
absolute value, percentage or index can make an important difference.

If we look at the global supply of renewable energy when displaying the trend in terms of totals
(kilotons of oil equivalents, Figure 13) or shares (%, Figure 14), then we see little change: the supply of
total biofuels goes up a little bit, but most others are more or less stable. In fact, the shares hardly change
at all. The message from these graphs simply be “renewable energy has not shown significant changes
since 1990,” which from an environmental point of view is rather disappointing.

However, when we show an indexed change with 1990 set at 100 (Figure 15), we can clearly depict the
increase in the supply of wind and solar energy. Thus, the message now could be “renewable energy has
shown a substantial increase since 1990, in particular for the supply of wind and solar energy”-which is
much more positive message from an environmental perspective.

IEA Training Manual Workshop for the National Reporting Toolkit (NRT) 75