SICA Advances 2025-2027 Energy Strategy Monitoring with 13 Key Themes and Indicators

San Salvador, El Salvador, April 27, 2026: The countries of the Central American Integration System (SICA) have defined the monitoring framework for their 2025-2027 Energy Strategy, a mechanism that will measure regional progress on issues such as energy matrix diversification, climate resilience, universal access to electricity, and energy efficiency. Participating countries are Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, Panama, and the Dominican Republic.

The Energy Coordination Unit of the General Secretariat of the Central American Integration System (UCE-SGSICA), together with the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the Global Network of Regional Sustainable Energy Centres (GN-SEC), with the support of the Austrian Development Agency (ADA), is advancing the monitoring process for the 2025-2027 period of the 2030 Sustainable Energy Strategy (EESCA-SICA).

Monitoring Themes and Indicators

The report structures 13 monitoring areas. Among them, Data Management, Renewable Diversification, Energy and Climate Change, Regulation and Standardization, and Financing are core parts of the monitoring. Also included are Energy Education, Sustainable Transport, Energy Nexus, Energy Access, and Rational and Efficient Energy Use.

Each theme includes specific indicators, weightings (high, medium, or low impact), and spaces for justification and observations.

Renewable Diversification

The percentage of renewable participation in electricity generation, installed capacity (MW), annual generation (GWh), large-scale projects (>10 MW), and investment in clean energy relative to the total will be measured.

Climate Change and Emissions

Countries will measure greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector (tCO₂e/year), electricity emission factor (tCO₂e/MWh), per capita emissions, the existence of MRV systems (measurement, reporting, and verification), and climate vulnerability assessments of energy infrastructure.

Energy Access

Indicators aim to close rural gaps: percentage of rural electricity coverage relative to total rural population, number of households connected to electricity for the first time, rural electrification projects (grid and decentralized), and exchanges of good practices between countries.

Energy Nexus and Gender

This theme strongly incorporates, for the first time, gender indicators: percentage of women in technical/management positions in the energy sector, number of energy training programs aimed at women, and energy access projects implemented with a gender perspective. It will also measure firewood consumption per household (disaggregated by rural/urban) and the reduction of respiratory diseases in intervened communities.

Transport and Electric Mobility

For the transport sector, the following will be counted: electric and hybrid vehicles in circulation, electric public transport buses, installed charging stations, regulations approved for vehicle energy efficiency, and investment studies for CO₂ reduction.

Financing and Cooperation

The monitoring will evaluate resource mobilization: number of energy projects financed with public, private, or international cooperation funds; amount of international climate finance directed to the energy sector (USD million); available green financial instruments; and energy intensity (energy consumption / GDP).

The document warns that many indicators depend on other institutions (private sector, NGOs, statistical agencies), and therefore recommends “making inquiries now, to make decisions based on access to information.”

Harmonization with OLADE and Energy Compacts

In addition, EESCA 2025-2027 will incorporate indicators recommended by OLADE (Latin American Energy Organization) and the Energy Compacts Progress Report. The former include renewable share in generation, GHG emissions, electricity access index, per capita firewood consumption, energy intensity by sector, and transmission and distribution losses. From the Energy Compacts, the following will be included: new renewable capacity installed per year, people with access to clean or improved cookstoves, improvements in quality of electricity service, and annual energy savings achieved through energy efficiency measures.

Finally, the monitoring will include an open section for each country to report new topics not foreseen in the Strategy, the Compacts, or the OLADE indicators.

The monitoring exercise seeks to ensure compliance with SDG target 7.2 (substantially increasing the share of renewable energy) and to guide regional energy policies toward resilient, low-emission, and gender-equitable systems.