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Transport climate change impacts have become a worldwide concern. Transport is responsible for 41% of CO2 emissions in Spain, and around 65% of that figure is due to road traffic. Tolled motorways are currently managed accor-ding to economic criteria: minimizing operational costs and maximizing revenues from tolls. Within this framework, this paper develops a new methodology for managing motorways based on a target of maximum energy efficiency. It includes technological and demand-driven policies, which are applied to two case studies. Various conclusions emerge from this study. The results clearly indicate that to achieve the best carbon footprint savings it is necessary to design sustainable strategies to manage each motorway section. That means to use the maximum of its capacity according to the total traffic flows of cars and heavy duty vehicles in the motorway road and also in the parallel roads. Another important finding is that substantial GHG reduction emissions could be achieved in the toll plazas with the application of Electronic Toll Collection (ETC) and Open Road Tolling (ORT) schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]