The transport sector is responsible for around 10% of Peru’s total emissions. The main source is road transport as the number of vehicles continues to grow. The sector mostly relies on oil-based fuels.26
Electric vehicle (EV) sales in Peru are still very low compared to the region. The government has implemented some measures to incentivise the purchase of EVs and hybrids such as low taxes and parking benefits. The sector has big potential to grow with the right investments and if proper infrastructure is put in place.11,27 Further efforts from the government to promote EV adoption include the TransElectrico project as a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) to promote Electric Transport.20 The government created in 2019 the National Programme for Sustainable Urban Transport which seeks to create integrated transport systems in cities.28
Three of the 1.5°C compatible pathways studied here show a steady decrease in emissions, leading to the decarbonisation of the transport sector by 2050. This is mainly driven by the increase in electricity’s share to between 21% and 49% by 2050. To be in line with the 1.5°C compatible pathways, Peru would need to reduce direct CO₂ emissions from the transport sector by between 20% to 32% below 2019 by 2030.
1 Climate Action Tracker. Climate Target Update Tracker: Peru. (2020).
2 Climate Action Tracker. Peru: Country Summary. (2020).
3 Ministerio de Ambiente de Peru. Estiman que reducir emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero beneficiará al país en 98 mil millones de dólares al 2050. Press Release, Ministerio de Ambiente (2020).
4 Gobierno del Peru. Contribuciones Determinadas a Nivel Nacional del Perú. Reporte de actualización periodo 2021-2030. 29 (2020).
5 Ministerio de Energía y Minas Peru. Minem: al cierre del último año se ejecutaron 49 proyectos de energías renovables en el Perú. (2021).
6 COES Perú. Actualización Plan de Transmision 2021 – 2030. (2020).
7 Andina Staff. 15% of Peru’s energy matrix in 2030 to be generated from renewable sources. Andina: Agencia Peruana de Noticias (2018).
8 International Energy Agency. Peru: Electricity generation by source. (2020).
9 BN Americas. What’s next for Peru’s failed 7-region gas concession call? BN Americas (2021).
10 Ministry of the Environment. Peru. Inventario Nacional de Gases de Efecto Invernadero del Año 2016 y Actualización de las Estimaciones de los Años 2000, 2005, 2010, 2012 y 2014. (2021).
11 Guglielmetti, F. Por decreto Perú facilita ingreso de vehículos eléctricos, híbridos y de hidrógeno verde. Portal movilidad (2022).
12 Ministerio de Transporte y Comunicaciones (MTC). Decreto Supremo que crea el Programa Nacional de Transporte Urbano Sostenible. Peru government (2019).
13 Reuters Staff. Peru says deforestation on the rise, up 80 percent from 2001. Reuters (2014).
14 International Energy Agency (IEA). Peru: Total energy supply (TES) by source. (2020).
15 Banco del Desarrollo de Perú (COFIDE). Prácticas e instrumentos financieros para promover la descarbonización de la movilidad urbana. (2019).
16 COFIDE. KfW y COFIDE firman acuerdo de préstamo por 250 millones de euros para Programa “Covid 19: Programa de Reactivación Verde”. (2020).
17 Organismo Supervisor de Inversión en Energía y Minería (OSINERGMIN)- Perú. La industria del gas natural en el Perú a diez años del Proyecto Camisea. vol. 51 (2017).
18 El Congreso de la República de Perú. LEY No 29969: Ley que dicta disposiciones a fin de promover la masificación del gas natural. El Peruano vol. 23 32 (El Congreso de la Repúblic de Perú, 2012).
19 Government of Peru. Peruvian submission to the UNFCCC under the Copenhagen accord. (2010).
20 Ministerio del Ambiente- Perú. Segundo Informe Bienal de Actualización ante la Convención Marco de las Naciones Unidas sobre el Cambio Climático. (2019).
21 Ministry of Environment of Peru. Programa Bosques del Minam proyecta conservar 10 millones de hectáreas de bosques comunales hacia el 2030. (2020).
22 Climate Action Tracker. Peru: Country Summary. (2020).”:https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/peru/
23 BN Americas. Increasing natural gas use in 7 Peruvian regions: a mature and profitable project. (2020).
24 Gaillard, C. Sustainable construction in Peru between informality, unskilled labour, self-construction and corruption. Construction 21 (2019).
25 Ministerio de Vivienda, C. y S. Decreto Supremo que Aprueba el Codigo Tecnico de Construccion Sostenible. (2021).
26 Ministry of the Environment. Peru. National Inventory Report 2016 and update 2000, 2005, 2010, 2012 y 2014. (2021).
27 Salas Oblitas, L. Autos híbridos y eléctricos: ¿cómo está el Perú respecto a los países de la región? El Comercio (2020).
28 Government of Peru. Decreto Supremo que crea el Programa Nacional de Transporte Urbano Sostenible. (Ministry of Transport and Communications, 2019).
29 To exclude LULUCF emissions, it was assumed that the percentage of share of mitigation effort in the LULUCF sector is the same as described in the first NDC and this value is subtracted from the absolute value.
30 While global cost-effective pathways assessed by the IPCC Special Report 1.5°C provide useful guidance for an upper-limit of emissions trajectories for developed countries, they underestimate the feasible space for such countries to reach net zero earlier. The current generation of models tend to depend strongly on land-use sinks outside of currently developed countries and include fossil fuel use well beyond the time at which these could be phased out, compared to what is understood from bottom-up approaches. The scientific teams which provide these global pathways constantly improve the technologies represented in their models – and novel CDR technologies are now being included in new studies focused on deep mitigation scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement. A wide assessment database of these new scenarios is not yet available; thus, we rely on available scenarios which focus particularly on BECCS as a net-negative emission technology. Accordingly, we do not yet consider land-sector emissions (LULUCF) and other CDR approaches.
Peruʼs energy mix in the transport sector
petajoule per year
- Natural gas
- Coal
- Oil and e-fuels
- Biofuel
- Biogas
- Biomass
- Hydrogen
- Electricity
- Heat
Peruʼs transport sector direct CO₂ emissions (of energy demand)
MtCO₂/yr
- Historical emissions
- SSP1 High CDR reliance
- SSP1 Low CDR reliance
- Low energy demand
1.5°C compatible transport sector benchmarks
Direct CO₂ emissions and shares of electricity, biofuels and hydrogen in the transport final energy demand from illustrative 1.5°C pathways for Peru
Indicator | 2019 | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 | Decarbonised transport sector by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Direct CO₂ emissions MtCO₂/yr | 26 | 17 to 20 | 8 to 10 | 1 to 3 | 2050 |
Relative to reference year in % | −32 to −20% | −70 to −62% | −96 to −87% |
Indicator | 2019 | 2030 | 2040 | 2050 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Share of electricity Percent | 0 | 1 to 7 | 9 to 23 | 21 to 49 |
Share of biofuels Percent | 4 | 9 to 12 | 13 to 61 | 23 to 63 |
Share of hydrogen Percent | 0 | 1 to 15 | 7 to 58 | 29 to 73 |