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We keep on truckin’: Trends in freight energy use and carbon emissions in 10 IEA countries

Panel: 4. Transport and mobility: How to deliver energy efficiency 

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Jiyong Eom, Joint Global Change Research Institute, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA
Lee Schipper, Precourt Energy Efficiency Center, USA
Lou Thompson, Thompson, Galenson & Associates, LLC, USA

Abstract

Based on a bottom-up approach relying on national authoritative data, we compare trends in the structure of freight use (heavy truck, light truck, rail, and water), its energy use, and associated CO2 emissions across ten member countries of International Energy Agency (IEA) from the earliest year of data availability to 2007-2008. The cross-country comparison of the freight transportation sector indicates that CO2 emissions (on a per capita basis) span a wide range and have developed in a fashion heavily dependent on local needs and without full knowledge or coordination with policies and practices in other countries. Over the last two decades, the effect of freight transport activity (measured in tonne-km) on CO2 emissions has decreased or virtually remained the same in most of the countries, helped by the ongoing shift in the structure of the economy, while the effects of energy intensity (mainly improvement in trucking energy use) and modal structure (shift towards trucking away from rail and water) have become relatively important. This suggests that major opportunities for freight CO2 emissions reduction in developed economies will arise from better management of freight energy intensity (mainly for trucking) and transition toward less energy intensive modes.

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Download this paper as pdf: 4-215_Eom.pdf