London, 8 December 2011

Over the next four decades, the global transportation sector will face unprecedented challenges related to demographics, urbanization, pressure to minimize and dislocate emissions outside urban centres, congestion of aging transport infrastructure and growth in fuel demand. These challenges will all be compounded by uncertainties emerging from government intervention and regulation. Regional and global cooperation, unstable global economic situations, and potential technological breakthroughs will all have a significant impact.

In light of these challenges and the levels of uncertainty, the World Energy Council (WEC) decided to re-examine the future of the transport and mobility sector by building Global Transport Scenarios to 2050. These scenarios will describe potential developments in transport fuels, technologies, and mobility systems over the course of the next forty years. Undoubtedly, the evolution of the transport world between 2010 and 2050 will offer many challenges, the biggest of which is providing sustainable transport for the seven to nine billion people at the lowest social cost possible. These scenarios show that government policies will play a critical role in determining the most likely pathway into the future.

Ends --

The report scenarios envision a radically different transport sector by 2050 and highlights the role of Governments in providing a sustainable future for the global transport sector.

The full report can be downloaded from www.worldenergy.org/documents/wec_transport_scenarios_2050.pdf