The exploration of joint carbon mitigation actions between demand- and supply-side for specific household consumption behaviors — A case study in China

Mingyu Lei, Qun Ding, Wenjia Cai and Can Wang

Applied Energy, 2022, vol. 324, issue C, No S0306261922010285

Abstract: The design of “fairness” and “justice” climate policies for controlling indirect household carbon emissions (IHCEs) requires joint efforts from the demand side and supply side. On the demand side, this study constructs behavior-specific IHCEs inventory for different household groups (differed by income level) in different regions to identify high-emitting households and corresponding high-emitting consumption behaviors. On the supply side, the “Carbon Account” is set up for different regions regarding various household consumption behaviors to screen all potential emitting-related stakeholders in the entire demand–supply chains. Using 25 Chinese provinces as study cases, the findings indicate that carbon inequalities across household groups are greater than income inequalities in poorer provinces, whereas the opposite is true in richer provinces. For most high emitting households (most were middle-high- and high-income households) in 25 provinces, Food & Beverage, Housing, and Durable goods are the top 3 carbon-intensive consumption behaviors, together accounting for 64–81% (72% on average) of total IHCEs. For the three carbon-intensive behaviors, the province-level carbon account analysis shows that a province's self-production emissions (local consumption, local emissions) took up an average of 52%, 70%, and 47% of its carbon accounts. An average of 83%, 80%, and 79% of net carbon transfer-in of a province (non-local consumption, local emissions) sourced from its 5 major consuming provinces, while 76%, 81%, and 77% of transfer-out (local consumption, non-local emissions) of a province were outsourced to its 5 major producing provinces, respectively. Furthermore, according to the sector-level carbon accounts, an average of 75%, 89%, and 76% of the sector carbon transfer-in, and an average of 72%, 80%, and 79% of the sector carbon transfer-out of a province were emitted by three dominant local or non-local industrial sectors, respectively. This study could provide policy implications for local governments to take joint climate mitigation strategies between the demand-side and supply-side targeting high-emitting household consumption behaviors.

Keywords: IHCEs; Household groups; Carbon accounts; Household consumption behaviors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2022.119740

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