Transport - Energy System - IEA

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• Major economies have adopted important policies to support uptake of electric vehicles and promote transport decarbonisation across multiple modes China continued to lead in total volume of electric vehicle (EV) sales in 2022, not only in cars – accounting for nearly 60% of global sales – but also for light commercial vehicles (LCVs) (more than 40%), 2-wheelers and buses (both more than 80%), and trucks (more than 85%).   The United States made significant policy progress towards decarbonising transport in 2022, including through the Inflation Reduction Act, which contains a suite of policies designed to accelerate EV adoption and production of biofuels, synthetic fuel, and hydrogen. The US Departments of Energy and Transportation together articulated a bold framework for transport decarbonisation, and the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed multi-pollutant emissions standards for light- and heavy-duty vehicles, towards the aim of meeting national 2050 net zero emissions targets.  The European Union launched a strong push on the transition to EVs through the Green Deal Industrial Plan, released in February 2023, and political agreement on the Alternative Fuels Infrastructure Regulation that will mandate member states to roll out public charging for light- and heavy-duty vehicles. Political agreement has also been reached on a law that will mandate the adoption of low-emission alternatives to fossil-derived jet kerosene in aviation, as well as low-emission fuels in maritime. A proposal to revise the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) to cover maritime emissions, and create a separate new ETS that also includes road transport emissions, is being formulated.   Norway continues to lead in terms of sales share of electric cars, reaching nearly 90% in 2022.  India adopted the Production Linked Incentives (PLI) scheme in 2022, which includes a programme to boost domestic battery manufacturing, with a budget of INR 181 billion (Indian rupees) (USD 2.2 billion), as well as the Automobile and Auto Component PLI scheme which grants incentives for sales of advanced automotive components and vehicles, including battery electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles.  In the first quarter of 2023, Australia committed to putting in place a fuel efficiency standard for light-duty vehicles, and formulated a National Electric Vehicle Strategy to accelerate the adoption of EVs.

• In 2022 global CO2 emissions from the transport sector grew by more than 250 Mt CO2 to nearly 8 Gt CO2, 3% more than in 2021. Aviation was responsible for much of the increase, as air travel continued to rebound from pandemic lows to around 70% of 2019 levels. Tempering this increase, EVs continued to gain momentum in 2022, with over 10 million cars sold globally, reaching 14% of all car sales. Emissions are still lower than in 2019, demonstrating the lingering effects of the pandemic on passenger and cargo activity.  Getting on track with the NZE Scenario would require transport emissions to fall by about 25% to around 6 Gt by 2030, even with an anticipated growth in demand. Achieving this drop will depend on the rapid electrification of road vehicles, operational and technical energy efficiency measures, the commercialisation and scale-up of low-emissions fuels, especially in the maritime and aviation sub-sectors, and policies to encourage modal shift to less carbon-intensive travel.

• CO2 emissions from transport continued to rebound in 2022, nearly returning to their 2019 level

• Transport continues to rely on oil products for nearly 91% of its final energy, down only 3.5 percentage points from the early 1970s