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LONDON -(Dow Jones)- The International Energy Agency Wednesday said the use of existing technologies to build the world’s fast-growing fleet of new vehicles could sharply cut oil demand and carbon emissions over the next four decades.
The Paris-based IEA said petrol use could be sliced by 6 billion barrels of crude annually – amounting to around 16 million barrels a day, or 19% of current world oil consumption – just by employing technologies such as better engines and tires in new vehicles.
Those fuel savings could lead to nearly 2 gigatons less of carbon dioxide gases, or about the same amount of pollution emitted in the 27-nation European Union now, said the IEA, energy watchdog to major oil-product consumers like the U.S.
In its ambitious plan dubbed “the 50 by 50″ world fuel economy initiative, the IEA said any government aid to the beleaguered auto industry should be integrated with new fuel economy targets. The report’s main goal is to halve greenhouse gas emissions from cars by 2050 and ax fuel consumption per kilometer by 50% by mid-century.
But such a lofty goal and the costs it entails is unlikely to sit well automakers, which are suffering their worst cash squeeze in decades due to plummeting sales.
The IEA announced the plan, which was put together in conjunction with the U.N., at the Geneva Auto Show and said it wants to work with car makers to realize the goals.
The agency said it set out such a “radical but achievable agenda” because of the world’s growing carbon emissions and fast-growing auto fleet, which it said will triple in size by 2050. Some analysts expect the number of vehicles on the road globally to top 1 billion in the next year or so.
“In confronting the economic recession this is a real opportunity for governments to combine support for the auto industry with measures to achieve environmental and energy policy goals,” IEA Executive Director Nobuo Tanaka said.
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