How to decouple income growth from household carbon emissions: A perspective based on urban-rural differences in China

Abstract

As the Chinese living standards rising, the share of household carbon emissions is rapidly increasing. According to Maslow's hierarchy of demand theory, this paper linked household carbon emissions with living standards. Based on urban and rural household carbon emission data from 30 provinces in China and results of group-based trajectory model, we analyzed the convergence of Chinese household carbon emissions. The non-linear driving effect of disposable income on household carbon emissions was confirmed. We draw the following conclusions: First, conditional β and club convergence exist. Second, increasing income is the primary driver of household carbon emissions, and the extent to which income drives household carbon emissions in urban areas decreases as living standards rise. However, the result is not significant in rural. Finally, we confirmed two driving channels of income on household carbon emissions. Increasing income can promote use of clean energy and optimize consumption structure, thus slowing down household carbon emissions. The ultimate solution to controlling household carbon emissions is to develop the economy and decouple income growth from household carbon emissions.