Abstract
Energy efficiency is one of the key factors affecting energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. By focusing on China’s transport sector, this study comprehensively reviews and compares the energy efficiency performance of passenger vehicles, light-duty commercial vehicles, commercial road transport, commercial water transport, aviation transport and railway transport, and identifies the opportunities for further energy efficiency improvements. It is found that railway transport exhibited the greatest improvement in energy efficiency during the past decade, which was mainly driven by progress in its electrification. Passenger vehicles have also experienced considerable energy efficiency improvements, which can be mainly attributed to the establishment of mandatory fuel consumption standards. In contrast, commercial road transport has shown the least improvement, due to insufficient policy implementations. Based on the analysis, it is recommended that, as China’s present policy framework to improve energy efficiency in the transport sector is generally effective, it should be consistently maintained and successively improved. Electrification represents a major opportunity for improvement of energy efficiency in the transport sector. Such potential should be fully tapped for all transport modes. Greater effort should be put into improving the energy efficiency of commercial road transport. The policy instruments utilized to improve the energy efficiency of heavy-duty vehicles should be as intensive and effective as the policy instruments for passenger vehicles.
Highlights
Transport is the movement of passengers or freight from one location to another, which is normally driven by economic purposes
This study aims to identify the major opportunities for further improvement of energy efficiency in China’s transport sector
The energy intensities of all transport vehicles have decreased to varying degrees
Summary
Transport is the movement of passengers or freight from one location to another, which is normally driven by economic purposes. Global transport activities experienced rapid growth during the past century. One representative example is the growth of global car sales, which increased from 29 million in 1980 to over 65 million in 2014 [1]. Transport has become a major sector of energy consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions [2,3]. 2014, the transport sector was responsible for around half of global petroleum consumption [4]. IEA (International Energy Agency) estimated that CO2 emissions from the transport sector accounted for
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