IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/eneeco/v92y2020ics0140988320302966.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Convergence of carbon emissions at the household level in China: A distribution dynamics approach

Author

Listed:
  • Zhang, Hongwu
  • Shi, Xunpeng
  • Cheong, Tsun Se
  • Wang, Keying

Abstract

Since household carbon emissions (HCEs) have become a new growing source and a significant contributor to global emissions, the reduction of HCEs is crucial. To formulate targeted and effective emission mitigation policies, we need to fully understand the characteristics of the distribution and evolution of per capita HCEs and their urban-rural and regional heterogeneity. This paper explores the transitional dynamics of per capita HCEs in China by employing the distribution dynamics approach with panel data compiled at the household level. We find that the overall per capita HCEs are unimodal distribution in the long run and the distribution dynamics of the per capita HCEs between the urban and rural areas or among the regional subgroups are quite different. However, the speed of convergence has accelerated over time. Moreover, our findings indicate that the per capita HCEs in the urban areas will achieve convergence to an emission level much higher than that of the rural areas. Meantime the per capita HCEs in Northeast China will converge to an emission level much higher than those of the other three regions. These findings provide valuable insights for policymakers in implementing differentiated environmental policies for different regions and between urban and rural households in China.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Cheong, Tsun Se & Wang, Keying, 2020. "Convergence of carbon emissions at the household level in China: A distribution dynamics approach," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:92:y:2020:i:c:s0140988320302966
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104956
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988320302966
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eneco.2020.104956?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Siqi Zheng & Rui Wang & Edward L. Glaeser & Matthew E. Kahn, 2011. "The greenness of China: household carbon dioxide emissions and urban development," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 11(5), pages 761-792, September.
    2. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for growth and distribution," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 2138, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    3. Zhifu Mi & Jiali Zheng & Jing Meng & Jiamin Ou & Klaus Hubacek & Zhu Liu & D’Maris Coffman & Nicholas Stern & Sai Liang & Yi-Ming Wei, 2020. "Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 3(7), pages 529-537, July.
    4. Shi, Xunpeng & Yu, Jian & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2020. "Convergence and distribution dynamics of energy consumption among China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    5. Shi, Xunpeng, 2014. "Setting effective mandatory energy efficiency standards and labelling regulations: A review of best practices in the Asia Pacific region," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 135-143.
    6. Brännlund Runar & Karimu Amin & Söderholm Patrik, 2017. "Convergence in carbon dioxide emissions and the role of growth and institutions: a parametric and non-parametric analysis," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 19(2), pages 359-390, April.
    7. Rios, Vicente & Gianmoena, Lisa, 2018. "Convergence in CO2 emissions: A spatial economic analysis with cross-country interactions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 222-238.
    8. Bin, Shui & Dowlatabadi, Hadi, 2005. "Corrigendum to "Consumer lifestyles approach to US energy use and the related CO2 emissions": [Energy Policy 33 (2005) 197-208]," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1362-1363, July.
    9. Wang, Yiming & Zhang, Pei & Huang, Dake & Cai, Changda, 2014. "Convergence behavior of carbon dioxide emissions in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 75-80.
    10. Mark Strazicich & John List, 2003. "Are CO 2 Emission Levels Converging Among Industrial Countries?," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(3), pages 263-271, March.
    11. Li, Xiao-Lin & Tang, D.P. & Chang, Tsangyao, 2014. "CO2 emissions converge in the 50 U.S. states — Sequential panel selection method," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 40(C), pages 320-333.
    12. Marcel P. Timmer & Erik Dietzenbacher & Bart Los & Robert Stehrer & Gaaitzen J. Vries, 2015. "An Illustrated User Guide to the World Input–Output Database: the Case of Global Automotive Production," Review of International Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 575-605, August.
    13. Bin, Shui & Dowlatabadi, Hadi, 2005. "Consumer lifestyle approach to US energy use and the related CO2 emissions," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(2), pages 197-208, January.
    14. Su, Bin & Ang, B.W., 2017. "Multiplicative structural decomposition analysis of aggregate embodied energy and emission intensities," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 137-147.
    15. Cai, Yifei & Chang, Tsangyao & Inglesi-Lotz, Roula, 2018. "Asymmetric persistence in convergence for carbon dioxide emissions based on quantile unit root test with Fourier function," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 470-481.
    16. Yi, Hongtao, 2015. "Clean-energy policies and electricity sector carbon emissions in the U.S. states," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 19-29.
    17. Pettersson, Fredrik & Maddison, David & Acar, Sevil & Söderholm, Patrik, 2014. "Convergence of Carbon Dioxide Emissions: A Review of the Literature," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 7(2), pages 141-178, July.
    18. Yang, Jun & Zhang, Tengfei & Sheng, Pengfei & Shackman, Joshua D., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions and interregional economic convergence in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 52(PB), pages 672-680.
    19. Ahmed, Mumtaz & Khan, Atif Maqbool & Bibi, Salma & Zakaria, Muhammad, 2017. "Convergence of per capita CO2 emissions across the globe: Insights via wavelet analysis," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 86-97.
    20. Dominik Wiedenhofer & Dabo Guan & Zhu Liu & Jing Meng & Ning Zhang & Yi-Ming Wei, 2017. "Unequal household carbon footprints in China," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 75-80, January.
    21. Qu, Jiansheng & Zeng, Jingjing & Li, Yan & Wang, Qin & Maraseni, Tek & Zhang, Lihua & Zhang, Zhiqiang & Clarke-Sather, Abigail, 2013. "Household carbon dioxide emissions from peasants and herdsmen in northwestern arid-alpine regions, China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 133-140.
    22. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107005198, September.
    23. Shi Li & Tsun Se Cheong, 2016. "Convergence and mobility of rural household income in China," China Agricultural Economic Review, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 8(3), pages 383-398, September.
    24. Wu, Jianxin & Wu, Yanrui & Se Cheong, Tsun & Yu, Yanni, 2018. "Distribution dynamics of energy intensity in Chinese cities," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 211(C), pages 875-889.
    25. Park, Hi-Chun & Heo, Eunnyeong, 2007. "The direct and indirect household energy requirements in the Republic of Korea from 1980 to 2000--An input-output analysis," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(5), pages 2839-2851, May.
    26. Kounetas, Konstantinos Elias, 2018. "Energy consumption and CO2 emissions convergence in European Union member countries. A tonneau des Danaides?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 111-127.
    27. Quah, Danny, 1993. "Empirical cross-section dynamics in economic growth," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 37(2-3), pages 426-434, April.
    28. Li, Xuehui & Lin, Boqiang, 2013. "Global convergence in per capita CO2 emissions," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 357-363.
    29. Golley, Jane & Meng, Xin, 2012. "Income inequality and carbon dioxide emissions: The case of Chinese urban households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1864-1872.
    30. Presno, María José & Landajo, Manuel & Fernández González, Paula, 2018. "Stochastic convergence in per capita CO2 emissions. An approach from nonlinear stationarity analysis," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 563-581.
    31. Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Wang, Keying & Xue, Jinjun & Song, Ligang & Sun, Yongping, 2020. "Intertemporal lifestyle changes and carbon emissions: Evidence from a China household survey," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    32. Nilgun Yavuz & Veli Yilanci, 2013. "Convergence in Per Capita Carbon Dioxide Emissions Among G7 Countries: A TAR Panel Unit Root Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 54(2), pages 283-291, February.
    33. Quah, Danny, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," CEPR Discussion Papers 1586, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    34. Song, Xiangnan & Lu, Yujie & Shen, Liyin & Shi, Xunpeng, 2018. "Will China's building sector participate in emission trading system? Insights from modelling an owner's optimal carbon reduction strategies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 232-244.
    35. Li, Jun & Wang, Xin, 2012. "Energy and climate policy in China's twelfth five-year plan: A paradigm shift," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 519-528.
    36. Global Energy Assessment Writing Team,, 2012. "Global Energy Assessment," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521182935, September.
    37. Herrerias, M.J., 2013. "The environmental convergence hypothesis: Carbon dioxide emissions according to the source of energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 1140-1150.
    38. Sauter, Caspar & Grether, Jean-Marie & Mathys, Nicole A., 2016. "Geographical spread of global emissions: Within-country inequalities are large and increasing," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 138-149.
    39. Burnett, J. Wesley, 2016. "Club convergence and clustering of U.S. energy-related CO2 emissions," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 62-84.
    40. Wu, Jianxin & Wu, Yanrui & Guo, Xiumei & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2016. "Convergence of carbon dioxide emissions in Chinese cities: A continuous dynamic distribution approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 207-219.
    41. Wang, Juan & Zhang, Kezhong, 2014. "Convergence of carbon dioxide emissions in different sectors in China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 605-611.
    42. Acar, Sevil & Yeldan, A. Erinç, 2018. "Investigating patterns of carbon convergence in an uneven economy: The case of Turkey," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 96-106.
    43. Hongwu Zhang & Lequan Zhang & Keying Wang & Xunpeng Shi, 2019. "Unveiling Key Drivers of Indirect Carbon Emissions of Chinese Older Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.
    44. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Inekwe, John & Ivanovski, Kris, 2018. "Conditional convergence in per capita carbon emissions since 1900," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 228(C), pages 916-927.
    45. Zhang, Dayong & Li, Jiajia & Han, Phoumin, 2019. "A multidimensional measure of energy poverty in China and its impacts on health: An empirical study based on the China family panel studies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 72-81.
    46. Li, Jiajia & Zhang, Jian & Zhang, Dayong & Ji, Qiang, 2019. "Does gender inequality affect household green consumption behaviour in China?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    47. Li, Jun & Zhang, Dayong & Su, Bin, 2019. "The Impact of Social Awareness and Lifestyles on Household Carbon Emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 145-155.
    48. Lyons, Seán & Pentecost, Anne & Tol, Richard S. J., 2012. "Socioeconomic Distribution of Emissions and Resource Use in Ireland," Papers WP426, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    49. Liu, Tiantian & Wang, Qunwei & Su, Bin, 2016. "A review of carbon labeling: Standards, implementation, and impact," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 68-79.
    50. Danny Quah, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution," CEP Discussion Papers dp0324, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    51. James G. Baldwin & Ian Sue Wing, 2013. "The Spatiotemporal Evolution Of U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions: Stylized Facts And Implications For Climate Policy," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(4), pages 672-689, October.
    52. Paul Evans & Ji Uk Kim, 2016. "Convergence analysis as spatial dynamic panel regression and distribution dynamics of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 emissions in Asian countries," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 50(3), pages 729-751, May.
    53. Johnson, Paul A., 2000. "A nonparametric analysis of income convergence across the US states," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 219-223, November.
    54. Quah, Danny T, 1997. "Empirics for Growth and Distribution: Stratification, Polarization, and Convergence Clubs," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 2(1), pages 27-59, March.
    55. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2017. "Per capita carbon dioxide emissions across U.S. states by sector and fossil fuel source: Evidence from club convergence tests," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 365-372.
    56. Awaworyi Churchill, Sefa & Inekwe, John & Ivanovski, Kris, 2020. "Stochastic convergence in per capita CO2 emissions: Evidence from emerging economies, 1921–2014," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    57. Cheong, Tsun Se & Li, Victor Jing & Shi, Xunpeng, 2019. "Regional disparity and convergence of electricity consumption in China: A distribution dynamics approach," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xie, Jun & Zhou, Shaojie & Teng, Fei & Gu, Alun, 2023. "The characteristics and driving factors of household CO2 and non-CO2 emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    2. Xie, Qichang & Ma, Di & Raza, Muhammad Yousaf & Tang, Songlin & Bai, Dingchuan, 2023. "Toward carbon peaking and neutralization: The heterogeneous stochastic convergence of CO2 emissions and the role of digital inclusive finance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    3. Chen, Zhenni & Zhang, Zengkai & Feng, Tong & Liu, Diyi, 2023. "What drives the temporal dynamics and spatial differences of urban and rural household emissions in China?," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    4. Tan, Xiujie & Sun, Qian & Wang, Meiji & Se Cheong, Tsun & Yan Shum, Wai & Huang, Jinpeng, 2022. "Assessing the effects of emissions trading systems on energy consumption and energy mix," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 310(C).
    5. Carlos Mendez & Felipe Santos-Marquez, 2022. "Economic and Social Disparities across Subnational Regions of South America: A Spatial Convergence Approach," Comparative Economic Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Association for Comparative Economic Studies, vol. 64(4), pages 582-605, December.
    6. Rodríguez-Benavides, Domingo & Andrés-Rosales, Roldán & Álvarez-García, José & Bekun, Festus Víctor, 2024. "Convergence of clubs between per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement production," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    7. Gao, Cuixia & Tao, Simin & He, Yuyang & Su, Bin & Sun, Mei & Mensah, Isaac Adjei, 2021. "Effect of population migration on spatial carbon emission transfers in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 156(C).
    8. Meng Sun & Yue Zhang & Yaqi Hu & Jiayi Zhang, 2022. "Spatial Convergence of Carbon Productivity: Theoretical Analysis and Chinese Experience," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(8), pages 1-19, April.
    9. Zheng, Shenglin & Yuan, Rong, 2023. "Sectoral convergence analysis of China's emissions intensity and its implications," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 262(PB).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rodríguez-Benavides, Domingo & Andrés-Rosales, Roldán & Álvarez-García, José & Bekun, Festus Víctor, 2024. "Convergence of clubs between per capita carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and cement production," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    2. Vaseem Akram & Badri Narayan Rath & Pradipta Kumar Sahoo, 2024. "Club convergence in per capita carbon dioxide emissions across Indian states," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(8), pages 19907-19934, August.
    3. Nazlioglu, Saban & Payne, James E. & Lee, Junsoo & Rayos-Velazquez, Marco & Karul, Cagin, 2021. "Convergence in OPEC carbon dioxide emissions: Evidence from new panel stationarity tests with factors and breaks," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    4. Bhattacharya, Mita & Inekwe, John N. & Sadorsky, Perry, 2020. "Consumption-based and territory-based carbon emissions intensity: Determinants and forecasting using club convergence across countries," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    5. Liu, Chang & Hong, Tao & Li, Huaifeng & Wang, Lili, 2018. "From club convergence of per capita industrial pollutant emissions to industrial transfer effects: An empirical study across 285 cities in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 121(C), pages 300-313.
    6. Diego Romero-Ávila & Tolga Omay, 2023. "Convergence of GHGs emissions in the long-run: aerosol precursors, reactive gases and aerosols—a nonlinear panel approach," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(11), pages 12303-12337, November.
    7. Xie, Qichang & Ma, Di & Raza, Muhammad Yousaf & Tang, Songlin & Bai, Dingchuan, 2023. "Toward carbon peaking and neutralization: The heterogeneous stochastic convergence of CO2 emissions and the role of digital inclusive finance," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    8. LAWSON, Laté A. & MARTINO, Roberto & NGUYEN-VAN, Phu, 2020. "Environmental convergence and environmental Kuznets curve: A unified empirical framework," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 437(C).
    9. Shi, Xunpeng & Yu, Jian & Cheong, Tsun Se, 2020. "Convergence and distribution dynamics of energy consumption among China's households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    10. Hongwu Zhang & Lequan Zhang & Keying Wang & Xunpeng Shi, 2019. "Unveiling Key Drivers of Indirect Carbon Emissions of Chinese Older Households," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.
    11. Jian-Xin Wu & Ling-Yun He, 2017. "The Distribution Dynamics of Carbon Dioxide Emissions Intensity across Chinese Provinces: A Weighted Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Shi, Xunpeng & Wang, Keying & Cheong, Tsun Se & Zhang, Hongwu, 2020. "Prioritizing driving factors of household carbon emissions: An application of the LASSO model with survey data," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    13. Cai, Yifei & Chang, Tsangyao & Inglesi-Lotz, Roula, 2018. "Asymmetric persistence in convergence for carbon dioxide emissions based on quantile unit root test with Fourier function," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 161(C), pages 470-481.
    14. Wang, Keying & Cui, Yongyan & Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Xue, Jinjun & Yuan, Zhao, 2022. "Household carbon footprints inequality in China: Drivers, components and dynamics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Apergis, Nicholas & Payne, James E., 2017. "Per capita carbon dioxide emissions across U.S. states by sector and fossil fuel source: Evidence from club convergence tests," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 365-372.
    16. Firat Emir & Mehmet Balcilar & Muhammad Shahbaz, 2018. "Inequality in Carbon Intensity in EU-28: Analysis Based on Club Convergence," Working Papers 15-38, Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Economics.
    17. Shiwei Yu & Xing Hu & Xuejiao Zhang & Zhenxi Li, 2019. "Convergence of per capita carbon emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China," Energy & Environment, , vol. 30(5), pages 776-799, August.
    18. Wu, Jian-Xin & He, Ling-Yun & Zhang, ZhongXiang, 2019. "Does China Fall into Poverty-Environment Traps? Evidence from Long-term Income Dynamics and Urban Air Pollution," ETA: Economic Theory and Applications 285027, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    19. Borowiec, Justyna & Papież, Monika, 2024. "Convergence of CO2 emissions in countries at different stages of development. Do globalisation and environmental policies matter?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    20. Jianxin Wu & Chunbo Ma, 2019. "The Convergence of China’s Marginal Abatement Cost of CO2: An Emission-Weighted Continuous State Space Approach," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 72(4), pages 1099-1119, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:eneeco:v:92:y:2020:i:c:s0140988320302966. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/eneco .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.