The distribution of nine environmental pressures related to food, energy transport and other consumption using ‘Green EUROMOD’

We analyse the distribution of emissions and other environmental pressures embedded in house-hold consumption across the EU. For this purpose, we extend the microsimulation model EUROMOD with environmental data from an input-output database to estimate environmental footprints em-bedded in household consumption associated with emissions like nitrogen and particulate matter, as well as other environmental pressures, like water and energy footprints. We then assess the distri-bution of these environmental footprints across different household characteristics like income, household type, urban density and others. We go into further detail by distinguishing environmental pressures by the stage along the value chain at which they occur, as well as by the consumption group they are associated with and by region. Our main finding is that all environmental pressures increase with income, but the extent to which they increase depends crucially on the consumption category, the specific environmental pressure, households’ further socio-economic characteristics and other factors. We argue that accounting for these factors is key for designing fair and effective environmental policy.