Regional Differences, Dynamic Evolution and Convergence of Carbon Emissions from Rural Residents’ Living Consumption: Evidence from China

Actively exploring a reduction in carbon emissions from rural residents’ living consumption (RRLC) is necessary to address climate change and achieve high-quality development of the rural economy. Based on the measurement of the carbon emissions from RRLC in China between the years 2000 and 2021, and it uncovers regional differences, dynamic evolution and convergence. The main findings are as follows: (1) Using the Dagum Gini coefficient, it was found that the differences in carbon emissions from RRLC in the nationwide and low-income level group (LLLG), low-middle-income level group (LMLG), upper-middle-income level group (UMLG), and high-income level group (HHLG) are all significantly decreasing, and the intensity of transvariation is the primary source of the overall difference. (2) Using the kernel density estimation, it was found that the level of carbon emissions from RRLC in the nationwide and the four major regions have generally gone upward, as well as a polarisation phenomenon. (3) Using the Markov chain, it was shown that there is an instability in the carbon emissions from RRLC, which can be transferred downward to the ideal state, but there is also a risk of increasing the upward shift of carbon emissions. (4) The nationwide level and the four regions showed typical σ convergence characteristics and absolute β convergence. After considering the influence of socio-economic and natural climatic factors, conditions β convergence trend is shown. And there are significant regional differences in spatial β convergence. The limitation of this study is that the data on carbon emissions from RRLC are only obtained at the macro level, which cannot accurately reflect the micro and individual impact on RRLC. On this basis, the paper puts forward policy recommendations to reduce the spatial imbalance of carbon emissions from RRLC.