Uncovering Household Carbon Footprint Drivers in an Aging, Shrinking Society

Yuzhuo Huang, Yosuke Shigetomi, Andrew Chapman and Ken’ichi Matsumoto
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Yuzhuo Huang: Graduate School of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan
Andrew Chapman: International Institute for Carbon-Neutral Energy Research, Kyushu University, 744 Motooka, Nishi-ku, Fukuoka 819-0395, Japan
Ken’ichi Matsumoto: Graduate School of Fisheries and Environmental Sciences, Nagasaki University, 1-14 Bunkyo-machi, Nagasaki 852-8521, Japan

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 19, 1-18

Abstract: In order to meet climate change mitigation goals, nations such as Japan need to consider strategies to reduce the impact that lifestyles have on overall emission levels. This study analyzes carbon footprints from household consumption (i.e., lifestyles) using index and structural decomposition analysis for the time period from 1990 to 2005. The analysis identified that households in their 40s and 50s had the highest levels of both direct and indirect CO 2 emissions, with decomposition identifying consumption patterns as the driving force behind these emissions and advances in CO 2 reduction technology having a reducing effect on lifestyle emissions. An additional challenge addressed by this study is the aging, shrinking population phenomenon in Japan. The increase in the number of few-member and elderly households places upward pressure on emissions as the aging population and declining national birth rate continues. The analysis results offer two mitigatory policy suggestions: the focusing of carbon reduction policies on older and smaller households, and the education of consumers toward low-carbon consumption habits. As the aging, shrinking population phenomenon is not unique to Japan, the findings of this research have broad applications globally where these demographic shifts are being experienced.

Keywords: CO 2 emissions; carbon footprint; household consumption; index decomposition analysis; structural decomposition analysis; aging society; Japan (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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