Abstract
Devising policies for a low carbon city requires a careful understanding of the characteristics of urban residential lifestyle and consumption. The production-based accounting approach based on top-down statistical data has a limited ability to reflect the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from residential consumption. In this paper, we present a survey-based GHG emissions accounting methodology for urban residential consumption, and apply it in Xiamen City, a rapidly urbanizing coastal city in southeast China. Based on this, the main influencing factors determining residential GHG emissions at the household and community scale are identified, and the typical profiles of low, medium and high GHG emission households and communities are identified. Up to 70% of household GHG emissions are from regional and national activities that support household consumption including the supply of energy and building materials, while 17% are from urban level basic services and supplies such as sewage treatment and solid waste management, and only 13% are direct emissions from household consumption. Housing area and household size are the two main factors determining GHG emissions from residential consumption at the household scale, while average housing area and building height were the main factors at the community scale. Our results show a large disparity in GHG emissions profiles among different households, with high GHG emissions households emitting about five times more than low GHG emissions households. Emissions from high GHG emissions communities are about twice as high as from low GHG emissions communities. Our findings can contribute to better tailored and targeted policies aimed at reducing household GHG emissions, and developing low GHG emissions residential communities in China.
Highlights
More than half of the world’s population are living in cities and urbanization is transforming the global environment at unparalleled rates and scales [1,2]
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions accounting of urban residential consumption focuses on seven categories including electricity use, fuel consumption, transportation, solid waste treatment, wastewater treatment, food, and housing
According to the system boundary classification, the majority of the GHG emissions from urban residential consumption in Xiamen City were derived from national or regional energy and material supply (PR-sourced), including building materials, electricity, and most food, which accounted for 70.43% of total GHG emissions
Summary
More than half of the world’s population are living in cities and urbanization is transforming the global environment at unparalleled rates and scales [1,2]. Production-based approaches are always exemplified in national-scale inventories and tracks mainly the direct GHG emissions across all production sectors and the residential sector within the political or geographical boundary [20,22]. These approches do not include energy embodied in imported goods and services. In cities with significant export-related industrial activities and relatively low resident populations, the consumption-based accounting approach will likely lead to lower GHG emissions estimates compared to production-based accounting approaches. It can reflect consumption choices and empower households and governments to redirect a low-carbon lifestyle [20]
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