Regional household carbon footprint in China: a case of Liaoning province

Abstract

With the rapid development, household energy consumption has become major driving force inducing higher energy consumption and corresponding carbon emissions. As the largest developing country, China's household energy consumption has grown quickly over the last two decades due to improved living standards and rapid urbanization. Thus, it is necessary to study household carbon footprint and identity the key driving forces so that appropriate mitigation policies can be raised. Under such a circumstance, this paper aims to uncover household carbon footprints in Liaoning province so that household carbon footprint characteristics and driving forces for the years of 1997, 2002 and 2007 can be quantified. Our results show that urban households have higher carbon footprints than their rural counterparts and indirect carbon footprints are higher than direct carbon footprints. Also, population size and per capita consumption are the main factors to contribute the increase of household carbon footprints, while carbon intensity had negative effect on the increase of household carbon footprints. Finally, we provide our policy recommendations in order to help local decision makers prepare their low carbon development strategies. The research outcomes from this study can also facilitate decision-makers in other provinces to mitigate the overall carbon emissions from their household sector by considering their local situations.