Abstract The purpose of this study is to two-fold. One is to identify key economic sectors that contribute to fossil energy consumption of the Iranian economy and second is to suggest an energy management policy for cleaner production. The main question of this article is how to identify the sector which can reduce energy intensity and also is directly responsible for energy consumption. The energy intensity of each sector according to the Input-Output approach can be decomposed into own weighted component made during the activities of the sector and pure weighted component generated by the activities in other sectors. Based on Input-Output Table of Iran in 2011, the results show that six sectors including production and distribution of electricity, crude oil and natural gas extraction, transportation, manufacture of chemicals and chemical products, services and manufacture of other non-metallic mineral products are energy intensive key sectors of Iran which have the most value of own weighted backward and forward multipliers compared to the other economic sectors. Hence, appropriate policy implications are suggested for those six sectors. These policies should be targeted to the sectors with high own weighted effects like converting natural gas-based utilities into combined cycle ones in electricity sector. In the opposite case, since more than one sector is involved in fossil energy consumption, this type of direct policies cannot be recommended for those sectors with high pure weighted effects. Consequently, policy makers should employ cross-sectoral policies for cleaner production in Iran.