Unveiling Key Drivers of Indirect Carbon Emissions of Chinese Older Households

Hongwu Zhang,Lequan Zhang,Xunpeng Shi,Keying Wang

doi:10.3390/su11205740

Abstract

The rapid urbanization and growing population aging have become salient features in China. Understanding their impacts on household emissions is crucial for designing mitigation policies for household carbon emissions. By integrating Chinese older household survey data with an unconditional quantile regression model, this paper examines the heterogeneous impacts of household characteristics on indirect carbon emissions of older Chinese households. There are three main findings: (1) The effects of urbanization on emissions at different quantiles of carbon emissions appear to be inverted U-shaped, which means that the rise of urbanization level increases carbon emissions more at the middle than at the bottom or the top, and helps to alleviate carbon emission inequality, (2) though carbon emissions rise with the increase of income, there is a clear urban-rural divide in the effects of income on carbon emissions, and (3) the rise in the share of well-educated people contributes to the increase in carbon emissions. The higher the degree of education is, the larger the impact is. These findings contribute to understanding the determinants of carbon emissions and are helpful for policymakers to design targeted policies in reducing carbon emissions from the consumption-side.

Highlights

Studying the indirect carbon emissions of the household and its key drivers becomes increasingly important, for China
With the sample of Chinese older households, we find that an increase in the share of educated households gives rise to household carbon emissions, and higher levels of education are associated with increases in carbon emissions, especially for households whose head has a degree of college and above
It is widely acknowledged that deep cuts in carbon emissions are unlikely to be fulfilled through technological change alone, and it has become imperative to cut CO2 emissions from the consumption-side

Summary

Introduction

Studying the indirect carbon emissions of the household and its key drivers becomes increasingly important, for China. Reducing carbon emissions from households attracts considerable attention recently [1]. Studies show that indirect, or embedded energy consumption and the related carbon emissions of households are becoming increasingly important in designing effective emission reduction policies. Indirect carbon abatement is especially important and challenging for China in achieving its emission reduction target. China is the largest emitter of CO2 in the world, and it has recently laid a strong emphasis on the promotion of domestic consumption and economic growth, which will continuously give rise to the direct and indirect CO2 emissions from households. Considering that indirect CO2 emissions are responsible for a major part of the total emissions, the carbon emission reduction target cannot be fulfilled without special attention to the increasing indirect carbon emissions

Objectives

Methods

Findings

Conclusion