Unequal household carbon footprints in China

Dominik Wiedenhofer (), Dabo Guan (), Zhu Liu, Jing Meng, Ning Zhang and Yi-Ming Wei
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Dominik Wiedenhofer: Institute of Social Ecology (SEC), IFF-Vienna, Alpen-Adria University Klagenfurt, Schottenfeldgasse 29
Dabo Guan: Water Security Research Centre, School of International Development, University of East Anglia
Zhu Liu: Resnick Sustainability Institute, California Institute of Technology
Jing Meng: School of Environmental Sciences, University of East Anglia

Nature Climate Change, 2017, vol. 7, issue 1, 75-80

Abstract: Abstract Households’ carbon footprints are unequally distributed among the rich and poor due to differences in the scale and patterns of consumption. We present distributional focused carbon footprints for Chinese households and use a carbon-footprint-Gini coefficient to quantify inequalities. We find that in 2012 the urban very rich, comprising 5% of population, induced 19% of the total carbon footprint from household consumption in China, with 6.4 tCO2/cap. The average Chinese household footprint remains comparatively low (1.7 tCO2/cap), while those of the rural population and urban poor, comprising 58% of population, are 0.5–1.6 tCO2/cap. Between 2007 and 2012 the total footprint from households increased by 19%, with 75% of the increase due to growing consumption of the urban middle class and the rich. This suggests that a transformation of Chinese lifestyles away from the current trajectory of carbon-intensive consumption patterns requires policy interventions to improve living standards and encourage sustainable consumption.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/nclimate3165

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