Rationalization of the energy consumption of road transport for sustainable development

This paper presents an approach to rationalize the energy consumption of road transport towards sustainability in a steady-state economy. The research hypothesis is that the rationalization of the energy consumption of road transport is affected by drift and shocks, which desynchronizes the adjustment mechanism from equilibrium. The objective of this research was to incorporate the model of energy consumption of road freight transport with the goals of sustainability by considering ecological and constructivist rational orders, the issue of order drift, and the occurrence of shocks. The research investigated Poland from the first quarter of 2004 to the fourth quarter of 2018. A model for rationalizing the energy consumption of road transport was constructed using the vector error correction model and cointegration techniques. The model revealed one cointegrating relationship and showed statistically significant unlimited drift. The level of changes to long-term equilibrium appeared respectively for GDP – 1.8%, PPI for energy – 7.3%, and for energy consumption – 10.9%. We observed a weak sustainability between the energy consumption of road transport and GDP and a strong sustainability between energy consumption of road transport and PPI energy. It was determined that price shocks had a positive impact (at the estimated point level around 0.06) and supply and demand shocks had a negative impact (at the level estimated point around –3).