With lower levels of household energy consumption and declining waste generation over the last two decades, capital regions in Europe lead the way to more sustainable consumption.
The preservation of the environment requires all regions and cities to increase resource efficiency and promote responsible consumption. Yet, within OECD countries, per capita energy consumption in the region with the highest consumption is typically three times higher than in the region with the lowest consumption – where household energy consumption includes water heating, space cooling and heating, cooking, lighting and electrical appliances but excludes transport and consumption outside the house. In Europe, households living in capital regions tend to consume less energy per capita than the national average. In Denmark and Norway, Copenhagen and Oslo are the regions with the lowest energy consumption per capita in 2018. With an energy consumption per capita of 490 kg of oil equivalent (see Definition), Ile-de-France records the second-lowest level of energy consumed per capita in France, 3 times lower than in Corsica. In Portugal, where the level of energy consumption is relatively high compared to other European countries, the average households’ energy consumption in the region of Lisbon is about 15% lower than in the touristic region of Algarve – the Portuguese region with the highest energy use per capita. Similarly, in Spain, households in the region of Madrid consume on average 35% less energy than in the Balearic Islands (Figure 3.15).
Since transitioning from fossil-fuel-powered vehicles to cleaner modes of transport is essential to reduce both CO2 emissions and air pollution, responsible consumption also relates to people’s choices in available modes of transport. Road transport generates close to 22% of the CO2 emissions in Europe and is among the main sources of air pollution (EC, 2019; EEA, 2019). However, the number of private vehicles per capita contributing to such emissions differs widely across types of regions in OECD countries. In Asian and European countries, metropolitan regions have on average fewer vehicles per inhabitant than regions far from metropolitan areas. In Austria, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, motor vehicle rates are at least 15% higher in regions far from metropolitan areas than in metropolitan regions (Figure 3.16).
Within-country differences in the use of private vehicles are particularly large in North American and Southern European countries. In the United States, Montana records around 3 times more vehicles per inhabitant than the District of Columbia that counts only 286 private vehicles per 1 000 people. Similar differences exist in France, Italy and Portugal. The largest regional disparities in vehicles rates, however, are recorded in Greece, Italy, Mexico and the United States. Moreover, motor vehicle rates have increased at a very high speed in some regions of Mexico over the past 20 years. In the region of Tlaxcala (Mexico) for example, where 54 vehicles were registered per 1 000 inhabitants in 2000, the private vehicle rate has multiplied by a factor of 6, going up to 347 vehicles per 1 000 inhabitants in 2018 (Figure 3.17).
