The International Energy Agency which is the energy forum for 26 industrialised countries published on April 28th a report exploring a set of measures governments could take to save oil as quick as possible, in order to cope with oil supply foreseen disruptions.
Different measures have been analysed in terms of financial costs, energy savings and level of acceptation. Many measures are related to the transport sector including encouraging telecommuting, car-pooling, ecodriving and public transport use, that could be enhanced by a reduction of fares by 50% or even 100%. Costs and efficiency of these measures have been estimated for each group of countries, regarding their current use of oil, urban structure, travel habits.
Efficiency is measured in terms of number of barrels saved from less than 100,000 barrels a day (very small savings) to more than 1 million barrels a day (very large savings). One has to bear in mind that total world demand amounts to 82 million barrels a day. Cost of solutions vary from less than $1 per barrel (very inexpensive) to more than $100 per barrel (very expensive).
The three most efficient measures for European countries are:
– Speed limit reduction to 90km/h (6% oil savings)
– Free public transport (4% oil savings)
– 1 day on 10 driving ban (3% oil savings) AEI invited governments to expand this analysis to their national contexts taking into account the whole implications of every measure proposed.