The report ‘World Energy Scenarios 2016: THE GRAND TRANSITION’ presents three exploratory scenarios—Modern Jazz, Unfinished Symphony, and Hard Rock. These provide users with a common language for thinking and talking about current events. They provide energy leaders with an open, transparent, and inclusive framework to think about a very uncertain future, and thus assist in the shaping of the choices they make.

The study has developed three realistic scenario stories using an explorative approach rather than the more commonly used normative, methodology:

The three scenarios developed are Modern Jazz, which represents a ‘digitally disrupted,’ innovative, and market-driven world, Unfinished Symphony, a world in which more ‘intelligent’ and sustainable economic growth models emerge as the world drives to a low carbon future, and a more fragmented scenario called Hard Rock, which explores the consequences of weaker and unsustainable economic growth with inward-looking policies.