Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China

Zhifu Mi, Jiali Zheng, Jing Meng (), Jiamin Ou, Klaus Hubacek, Zhu Liu, D'Maris Coffman (), Nicholas Stern, Sai Liang and Yi-Ming Wei
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Jiali Zheng: University College London
Jing Meng: University College London
Jiamin Ou: University of East Anglia
Klaus Hubacek: University of Groningen
Zhu Liu: Tsinghua University
Nicholas Stern: London School of Economics
Sai Liang: Beijing Normal University

Nature Sustainability, 2020, vol. 3, issue 7, 529-537

Abstract: Abstract There are substantial differences in carbon footprints across households. This study applied an environmentally extended multiregional input–output approach to estimate household carbon footprints for 12 different income groups of China’s 30 regions. Subsequently, carbon footprint Gini coefficients were calculated to measure carbon inequality for households across provinces. We found that the top 5% of income earners were responsible for 17% of the national household carbon footprint in 2012, while the bottom half of income earners caused only 25%. Carbon inequality declined with economic growth in China across space and time in two ways: first, carbon footprints showed greater convergence in the wealthier coastal regions than in the poorer inland regions; second, China’s national carbon footprint Gini coefficients declined from 0.44 in 2007 to 0.37 in 2012. We argue that economic growth not only increases income levels but also contributes to an overall reduction in carbon inequality in China.

Date: 2020
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DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y

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