Composite energy intensity index estimation in Iran: An exploration of index decomposition analysis

Abstract

The role of energy as a key factor in enhancing sustainable development, energy security, and economic competitiveness is a reason that has made energy efficiency trends tracking essential and is why policymakers and energy planners have focused on energy intensity and its following issues. Also, the inadequate operation of the traditional energy intensity index and the overestimation of its results turned this index into a weak one. Hence, it is necessary to employ a new index that can be decomposed and is capable of considering both monetary and physical activity indicators to offer a more accurate view of the energy intensity variation. This paper develops a Composite Energy Intensity Index by combining monetary and physical activity indicators by applying the multiplicative Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) in 2001-2011 to decompose the factors affecting energy intensity change and seeks to fill the gap between the EGR and CEI indices. The results of the survey demonstrate more economy-wide energy consumption reduction while using the composite energy intensity index as compared to the traditional energy intensity index; also, the results show the relatively important role of the overall structure effect. From Sectoral perspective results, both energy to GDP index (EGR) and composite energy intensity index (CEI) have shown passenger transport as the most energy-consuming sector. The passenger transport sector reveals an urgent need for implementing appropriate policies to reduce the high energy consumption of the sector.