Energy-related CO2 emissions of urban and rural residential buildings in China: A provincial analysis based on end-use activities

Abstract

The residents' energy consumption and CO2 emissions in China continue to increase. There are significant differences between provinces, urban and rural areas in terms of economic development levels, energy consumption behaviors, climatic conditions, etc. An analysis focusing on these factors will be helpful for a better understanding of the CO2 emissions in this sector. Thus, a bottom-up Adaptive Weighting Divisia decomposition model was established to analyze the inherent differences in the per capita CO2 emissions across urban and rural areas of different provinces from the perspective of end-use activity based on multiple sources of data. The results show that the average household CO2 emissions in urban consistently exceeded those in rural. The residential energy source is gradually transitioning from coal and biomass to electricity, heat, and natural gas. Inner Mongolia has been the province with the highest per capita CO2 emissions since 2008, with an average annual growth rate of 12.39%. Provinces with high CO2 emissions are mainly concentrated in northern China, and the CO2 emissions were mainly influenced by heating. The end-use energy intensity and activity were mainly affected by heating, cooking and water heating, and household appliances, with the greatest impact on the CO2 emissions from the residents.