Transport is the leading contributor and fastest growing sector in global energy consumption which has seen a 55 percent rise since 1990.
Transport represents 27 percent of global consumption while privately-owned vehicles make up the biggest share within this sector. Cars account for 64 percent of global energy consumption. Trucks use 33 percent, followed by buses with two percent and motorcycles with one percent, according to the International Energy Agency's report.
Within the transport sector, 90 percent of energy use is road-based. Air travel makes up six percent, while water ways and railways make up two percent.
The European Union along with China and the U.S. have introduced new targets for carbon emissions within the last month and car exhausts are proven to be among the biggest contributors of CO2.
The IEA, in its World Energy Outlook, states that carbon goals could motivate the use of environmentally-friendly alternatives to oil such as electric cars in the future.
Oil is the highest energy resource used in transport at 93 percent, followed by natural gas with a four percent share, bioenergy at two percent and electricity at one percent.
Of the oil products used for transport, petroleum makes up the biggest share of the total energy use with 75 percent, diesel accounts for 15 percent while jet fuel is eight percent and LPG is one percent.
Diesel fuel is thought to be more efficient compared to petroleum as it is produced from various sources including biomass, animal fats, biogas, natural gas and coal.
Sixty-two percent of global oil sources are used in the transport sector. Of the bioenergy sources, five percent is used by transport and two percent by natural gas and electricity.
Of the 140 selected countries studied in the report, the share of the transport sector in the total final consumption of energy for Gibraltar is over 75 percent, making it the country that has the highest energy consumption for transport.
Luxembourg, Ecuador and the Netherlands follow with over 50 percent share given to the transport sector within final energy consumption.
The report concludes that, due to the increasing demand for transport in non-member countries of OPEC, transport is expected to maintain a very prominent role within the global energy demand for the next few decades.
By Zeynep Beyza Karabay
Anadolu Agency
zeynep.karabay@aa.com.tr