Energy Efficiency: Transport
The global exchange for energy efficiency policies, data and impacts
Transport is responsible for around 29% of global final energy demand, a share that has been rapidly increasing. By implementing cost-effective energy efficiency opportunities available today, transport energy use could remain flat between now and 2040, despite activity levels doubling.
The Efficient World Scenario identifies opportunities in several transport sub-sectors
The Efficient World Scenario identifies the potential for transport activity to double by 2040, with energy use remaining at today's levels. Between now and 2040, efficiency could improve by at least 2.5% per year on averge in most transport sub-sectors.
2000-16 2017-40 Passenger light-duty vehicles 0.5 2.8 Road freight 0.1 2.6 Aviation 3.6 3.2 International Shipping 2.1 2.8
{ "title": { "text": "Percentage improvement in energy intensity by transport sub-sector, historically and in the EWS" }, "chart": { "type": "column" }, "plotOptions": { "column": { "grouping": "true" } }, "tooltip": { "valueDecimals": 0, "valueSuffix": "%" }, "yAxis": { "title": { "text": "% improvement in energy intensity" }, "labels": { "format": "{value}%" } } }
Passenger cars
- Offers more than half of the potential energy savings in road transport in 2040.
- Energy efficiency could improve by 2.8% per year to 2040. The historic trend since 2000 is 0.5% per year, but recently implemented and planned policies could raise this to 2%.
- The average passenger car in 2040 could be as efficient as today’s best hybrids and more than 40% of the global car fleet could be electric.
Trucks
- Trucks represent 42% of the potential energy savings in road transport in 2040.
- Recently implemented and planned policies could see the annual efficiency improvement rate increase to 1.5%, compared with the historic trend of less than 0.1%.
- The EWS sees the annual improvement rate raised to over 2.5% through policies being strengthened and more widely applied.
Aviation & shipping
- Non-road transport (aviation, shipping and rail) represents one-third of total transport sector energy savings potential in 2040.
- Efficiency improvement rates in aviation and shipping could grow to 3% per annum, double the rates achieved in 2016.
Policy insights
The IEA Efficient World Strategy highlights a range of actions through which governments can enable greater transport sector energy efficiency gains.
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- Efficiency indicaors
- Policy
- Impacts
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North America Central & South America Middle East Global Eurasia Africa Other Asia Pacific Europe China India 2000 0.301 0.172 0.185 0.216 0.163 0.131 0.153 0.144 0.133 0.087 2001 0.299 0.170 0.193 0.212 0.159 0.129 0.154 0.143 0.126 0.083 2002 0.297 0.170 0.200 0.211 0.153 0.128 0.152 0.143 0.124 0.083 2003 0.296 0.166 0.183 0.208 0.146 0.126 0.149 0.142 0.128 0.078 2004 0.291 0.167 0.178 0.206 0.142 0.126 0.146 0.141 0.135 0.078 2005 0.285 0.164 0.184 0.202 0.133 0.123 0.138 0.138 0.131 0.076 2006 0.279 0.157 0.184 0.196 0.130 0.119 0.131 0.136 0.127 0.073 2007 0.277 0.157 0.181 0.193 0.120 0.120 0.129 0.134 0.121 0.078 2008 0.268 0.160 0.184 0.188 0.123 0.120 0.126 0.131 0.120 0.086 2009 0.265 0.162 0.192 0.187 0.131 0.123 0.131 0.134 0.114 0.087 2010 0.266 0.165 0.188 0.186 0.128 0.126 0.128 0.130 0.114 0.085 2011 0.259 0.166 0.181 0.182 0.128 0.129 0.128 0.126 0.114 0.086 2012 0.260 0.173 0.186 0.180 0.123 0.128 0.128 0.123 0.116 0.086 2013 0.255 0.169 0.190 0.177 0.122 0.129 0.129 0.122 0.116 0.083 2014 0.254 0.174 0.188 0.175 0.123 0.129 0.124 0.121 0.113 0.081 2015 0.252 0.175 0.183 0.174 0.124 0.127 0.123 0.121 0.114 0.082 2016 0.249 0.177 0.170 0.171 0.129 0.127 0.123 0.121 0.106 0.082 2020 0.229 0.171 0.163 0.153 0.122 0.116 0.109 0.106 0.097 0.072 2025 0.191 0.158 0.151 0.130 0.112 0.103 0.092 0.089 0.086 0.064 2030 0.157 0.137 0.130 0.108 0.098 0.089 0.077 0.073 0.072 0.057
{ "title": { "text": "Transport sector energy intensity by region" }, "subtitle": { "text": "Click a country/region in the legend to show it on the chart." }, "chart": { "type": "line", "height": "40%" }, "yAxis": { "min": 0, "title": { "text": "Energy intensity (boe/thousand USD)" } }, "xAxis": { "plotBands": [ { "from": 2000, "to": 2016, "label": { "text": "Historical" } }, { "from": 2016, "to": 2040, "label": { "text": "SDS Targets" }, "className": "nofill" } ] }, "legend": { "align": "right", "verticalAlign": "middle", "layout": "vertical" }, "plotOptions": { "series": { "zoneAxis": "x", "zones": [{ "value": 2016 }, { "dashStyle": "Dot" }], "marker": { "enabled": false }, "tooltip": { "valueSuffix": " boe/thousand USD" } } }, "series": [{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": true},{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": false},{"visible": false}] }Note: Global transport GDP intensity is measured as transport final energy consumption per unit of gross global product. National Transport GDP intensity is measured in the same way, but per unit of gross domestic product.
Intensity Energy use Activity (pkm) 2002 100 100 100 2003 96.24596551 99.58334646 103.4675541 2004 89.7834083 105.9951315 118.0564801 2005 86.21711792 109.9276931 127.5010064 2006 82.03986328 111.1272593 135.4551981 2007 76.41955192 113.9916399 149.1655435 2008 74.14054884 112.8015226 152.1455187 2009 70.95206989 106.8135903 150.543304 2010 68.98438484 112.1117495 162.5175752 2011 66.5924257 115.3432892 173.2078206 2012 64.39 117.49 182.47 2013 62.38 120.08 192.50 2014 60.74 123.92 204.00 2015 59.43 130.33 219.30
{ "title": { "text": "Aviation energy intensity" }, "chart": { "type": "line", "height": "40%" }, "yAxis": { "min": 40, "max": 220, "title": { "text": "(index, 2002=100)" } }, "legend": { "align": "right", "verticalAlign": "middle", "layout": "vertical", "reversed": true }, "plotOptions": { "series": { "marker": { "enabled": false }, "tooltip": { "valueSuffix": " (2002=100)" } } } }
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2005 2010 2015 2017 Canada 0.00 0.13 0.33 0.45 US 0.59 0.60 0.62 0.66 Mexico 0.00 0.00 0.09 0.16 China 0.01 0.13 0.44 0.54 India 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.02 Indonesia 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 Brazil 0.00 0.00 0.01 0.01 South Africa 0.00 0.00 0.02 0.03 Germany 0.00 0.08 0.27 0.35 France 0.00 0.06 0.23 0.29 Japan 0.40 0.52 0.62 0.68 Korea 0.00 0.06 0.15 0.20 World 0.21 0.21 0.27 0.32
{ "title": { "text": "Mandatory policy coverage of transport energy consumption by key region, 2017" }, "chart": { "type": "column", "height": "40%" }, "xAxis": { "type": "category" }, "yAxis": { "title": { "text": "Policy coverage (%)" } }, "tooltip": { "valueDecimals": 1, "valueSuffix": " (Transport energy use covered by mandatory policy)" } }
Historical and future change in global passenger car energy use without standards and if best-in-class fuel economy standards had been implemented
Change in passenger car energy use Without standards 1.23 Implementing best-in-class standards -2.23
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Change in passenger car energy use Implementing no new policies (CPS) 4.20 Efficient World Scenario -4.30
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2000 2005 2010 2015 2017 Canada 0 0.51 2.7 7.75 10.3 US 0 0.4 2.02 6 8.78 Mexico 0 0 0.21 3.1 5.04 China 0 0.29 1.26 3.72 5.04 India 0 0 0.27 0.77 0.99 Germany 0 0.79 3.04 7.1 9.04 France 0 0.61 2.42 5.81 7.97 UK 0 0.74 2.57 6.93 9.47 Japan 0.00 1.00 3.75 8.49 10.86 Korea 0.00 0.10 1.55 4.51 5.59 World 0 0.33 1.31 3.31 4.6
{ "title": { "text": "Efficiency policy progress index for transport end-uses by key region, 2000-2017" }, "chart": { "type": "column", "height": "40%" }, "yAxis": { "title": { "text": "EPPI" } } }
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Total Other Rail Shipping Aviation Road freight vehicles Passenger road vehicles 2000 5.742 0.138 0.100 0.612 0.675 1.600 2.617 2001 5.771 0.139 0.097 0.587 0.658 1.619 2.671 2002 5.909 0.145 0.100 0.603 0.665 1.648 2.749 2003 6.041 0.150 0.105 0.621 0.661 1.703 2.801 2004 6.315 0.158 0.110 0.669 0.704 1.785 2.888 2005 6.447 0.161 0.116 0.691 0.730 1.830 2.919 2006 6.592 0.161 0.120 0.738 0.739 1.878 2.957 2007 6.797 0.172 0.118 0.776 0.757 1.950 3.023 2008 6.808 0.173 0.109 0.765 0.748 1.974 3.039 2009 6.676 0.148 0.095 0.737 0.710 1.956 3.028 2010 6.960 0.158 0.098 0.785 0.747 2.041 3.132 2011 7.077 0.161 0.109 0.791 0.768 2.093 3.156 2012 7.203 0.150 0.110 0.755 0.779 2.182 3.227 2013 7.340 0.158 0.106 0.761 0.797 2.210 3.308 2014 7.486 0.159 0.103 0.781 0.822 2.263 3.358 2015 7.682 0.159 0.100 0.799 0.861 2.291 3.472 2016 7.763 0.162 0.101 0.819 0.875 2.294 3.513 2025 7.632 0.151 0.070 0.811 0.825 2.299 3.476 2030 7.129 0.148 0.060 0.803 0.778 2.175 3.166
{ "chart": { "type": "line", "height": "40%" }, "title": { "text": "Transport sector CO2 emissions by mode" }, "subtitle": { "text": "Click a transport mode to show/hide on the chart" }, "plotOptions": { "series": { "marker": { "enabled": false }, "zoneAxis": "x", "zones": [{ "value": 2016 }, { "className": "nofill dotted" }], "visible": false } }, "tooltip": { "valueSuffix": " GtCO2", "valueDecimals": 1 }, "legend": { "align": "right", "layout": "vertical", "verticalAlign": "middle" }, "yAxis": { "min": 0, "title": { "text": "GtCO2" } }, "xAxis": { "plotBands": [ { "from": 2000, "to": 2016, "label": { "text": "Historical" } }, { "from": 2016, "to": 2040, "label": { "text": "SDS Targets" }, "className": "nofill" } ] }, "series": [ { "visible": true }, { "tooltip": {"valueDecimals": 2 } } ] }Note: Other includes pipeline and non-specified transport.
Related resources
IEA publications on transport
Other resources
Explore efficiency by sector
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Economy-wide
Economy-wide actions to improve energy efficiency include setting national targets, market-based instruments and creating a supportive enabling environment for investments.
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Buildings
The buildings sector consumes 30% of all energy and despite some efficiency improvements, demand for cooling, heating, and lighting as well as residential appliances and equipment continues to grow.
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Transport
Countries can improve the sustainability of their transport systems by implementing advanced technologies, improving fuel efficiency and shifting to lower-carbon fuels and transport modes.
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Industry
There are large opportunities for industry to improve energy efficiency through improved equipment and process design and the adoption of energy management systems and practices.
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