Energy consumption and greenhouse gas emission trends in Mexican road transport

The transport sector is the main contributor to CO2 emissions in Mexico accounting for 39% in 2010, of which road transport represented 92%. This paper presents a disaggregation of the fuel consumption and its related CO2 emissions from passenger and freight road transport in Mexico, based on a bottom-up model. Results show that private gasoline-powered vehicles represented 32.6% of CO2 emissions in 2010, followed by gasoline light duty freight vehicles with 25%, diesel interurban buses, 11.3% and diesel heavy duty freight vehicles, 12%. A simple econometric model shows that gasoline price increases have not impacted gasoline demand. Mitigation of GHG emissions must be based on policies aimed to reduce fuel consumption in gasoline vehicles, such as through fuel efficiency standards, but also reduction of the use of private cars by public transportation and logistics operation for light freight transportation.

► Bottom up model developed to estimate road transport energy use by mode in Mexico. ► Private vehicles represent 31% of transport energy consumption. ► In 20 years, private car fuel economy (km/l) only increased 2.2%. ► Gasoline demand is driven by private cars and light trucks.