Exergy analysis of China?s transportation sector

In China, transportation plays an increasingly important role in energy consumption. This study aims to uncover the evolution of energy consumption structures and intensities within China's transportation during 2000-2018 from the perspective of exergy. Our study will analyse five sub-sectors; highways, railways, waterways, civil aviation, and pipelines. China's transportation exergy consumption witnessed a notable increase from 3228 PJ in 2000 to 12,017 PJ in 2018, with an annual growth of 7%. Highways and railways were the two largest sub -sectors in terms of exergy consumption. The exergy efficiencies of the transportation sector show an upward trend, with railways and pipelines sub-sectors growing conspicuously faster than other sub-sectors. Potential factors influencing the evolution of transportation's exergy consumption are identified by using the Log-Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) decomposition method. The sub-sector effect and the activity effect have a strong posi-tive correlation with exergy consumption. The exergy intensity effect shows a strong negative correlation with exergy consumption. Owing to the railways' exergy intensity effect, the rebound effect is higher than that of technological progress, creating a positive influence on exergy consumption. Improvement in exergy efficiencies and joint efforts among transportation sub-sectors, will improve the overall performance of China's trans-portation sector, leading to sustainable development.