Changing Lifestyles Towards a Low Carbon Economy: An IPAT Analysis for China

Klaus Hubacek, Kuishuang Feng and Bin Chen
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Klaus Hubacek: Department of Geography, College Park, University of Maryland, MD 20742, USA
Kuishuang Feng: Department of Geography, College Park, University of Maryland, MD 20742, USA
Bin Chen: State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China

Energies, 2011, vol. 5, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: China has achieved notable success in developing its economy with approximate 10 percent average annual GDP growth over the last two decades. At the same time, energy consumption and CO 2 emissions almost doubled every five years, which led China to be the world top emitter in 2007. In response, China’s government has put forward a carbon mitigation target of 40%–45% reduction of CO 2 emission intensity by 2020. To better understand the potential for success or failure of such a policy, it is essential to assess different driving forces such as population, lifestyle and technology and their associated CO 2 emissions. This study confirms that increase of affluence has been the main driving force for China’s CO 2 emissions since the late 1970s, which outweighs reductions achieved through technical progress. Meanwhile, the contribution of population growth to CO 2 emissions was relatively small. We also found a huge disparity between urban and rural households in terms of changes of lifestyle and consumption patterns. Lifestyles in urban China are beginning to resemble Western lifestyles, and approaching their level of CO 2 emissions. Therefore, in addition to the apparent inefficiencies in terms of production technologies there is also a lot of room for improvement on the consumption side especially in interaction of current infrastructure investments and future consumption.

Keywords: IPAT; lifestyle; technology; energy consumption; CO 2 emissions; China (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: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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