IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natsus/v3y2020i7d10.1038_s41893-020-0504-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China

Author

Listed:
  • Zhifu Mi

    (University College London)

  • Jiali Zheng

    (University College London
    Chinese Academy of Sciences
    University of Chinese Academy of Sciences)

  • Jing Meng

    (University College London)

  • Jiamin Ou

    (University of East Anglia)

  • Klaus Hubacek

    (University of Groningen
    International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis
    Masaryk University)

  • Zhu Liu

    (Tsinghua University)

  • D’Maris Coffman

    (University College London)

  • Nicholas Stern

    (London School of Economics)

  • Sai Liang

    (Beijing Normal University)

  • Yi-Ming Wei

    (Beijing Institute of Technology
    Beijing Institute of Technology
    Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Economics and Environmental Management)

Abstract

There are substantial differences in carbon footprints across households. This study applied an environmentally extended multiregional input–output approach to estimate household carbon footprints for 12 different income groups of China’s 30 regions. Subsequently, carbon footprint Gini coefficients were calculated to measure carbon inequality for households across provinces. We found that the top 5% of income earners were responsible for 17% of the national household carbon footprint in 2012, while the bottom half of income earners caused only 25%. Carbon inequality declined with economic growth in China across space and time in two ways: first, carbon footprints showed greater convergence in the wealthier coastal regions than in the poorer inland regions; second, China’s national carbon footprint Gini coefficients declined from 0.44 in 2007 to 0.37 in 2012. We argue that economic growth not only increases income levels but also contributes to an overall reduction in carbon inequality in China.

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0504-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-020-0504-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y?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.

    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:nat:natsus:v:3:y:2020:i:7:d:10.1038_s41893-020-0504-y. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    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.