Pathways to mitigate household carbon emissions in Chinese cities: Intentions, actions, and environments

Abstract

Cities represent primary origins of carbon emissions and key spaces to cope with climate change. Low-carbon city pilots (LCP) have carried out three groups to mitigate household carbon emissions in China. There are many difficulties in identifying possible sources and factors of household carbon emissions. This study attempted to construct the analytical framework to examine potential mitigation pathways, which would influence household carbon emissions. Collecting data from urban energy consumption, the difference-in-differences model, a widely utilized quantitative method, is employed to assess the policy effect of LCP on mitigating household carbon emissions in China. Results indicated that: (1) LCP could mitigate household carbon emissions (−7.6%) and per capita household carbon emissions (−8.8%), which passed serious robustness tests. (2) Potential mechanisms, through which LCP mitigate household carbon emissions, were recognized, in terms of subjective intentions, objective actions, and external environments. (3) Policy effects in eastern and central cities were significantly negative.The improvement of energy consumption for winter heating in northern cities could mitigate more household carbon emissions.