Household consumption characteristics and energy-related carbon emissions estimation at the community scale: A study of Zengcheng, China

Abstract

In recent decades, great changes have taken place in residents’ lifestyle and consumption structure. Urban household consumption plays an increasingly significant role in promoting energy use and related carbon emissions. Communities are regarded as the basic part of city, and also units and cases where management methods and policies are most likely to be operated and implemented. In this paper, questionnaire surveys were administered to investigate the consumption characteristics of urban households at the community scale in Zengcheng. Based on statistical analysis, we assessed the consumption differences among the five selected communities. Meanwhile, the carbon emissions caused by household energy consumption (CEs-HE) were evaluated and the influencing factors were studied. The results showed that respondents from different communities had significant differences in their residential consumption, housing conditions, daily travel distance, public transport charge, household durable goods service life, monthly staple food consumption, and monthly energy consumption, respectively. The average CEs-HE of each household were 410.6 ​kg CO 2 per month. The Household demographic information, main expenditure items, housing conditions, daily travelling, family life habits and residents’ environmental awareness all had significant impacts on CEs-HE. The results supplied in this study could provide some valuable information for decision-makers to explore the road of urban sustainable development. • The energy consumption and carbon emissions caused by household consumption are getting harder to ignore. • The research based on the community scale can accurately reflect the existing problems of the residents’ consumption within a certain region. • There were significant differences in household consumption characteristics among different communities. • The household consumption behavior and environmental awareness had significant impacts on the household carbon emissions.