Influence of Population Income on Energy Consumption for Heating and Its CO2 Emissions in Cities

Abstract

As a result of the increase in city populations, and the high energy consumption and emissions of buildings, cities in general, and buildings in particular, are the focus of attention for public organizations and utilities. Heating is among the largest consumers of energy in buildings. This study examined the influence of the income of inhabitants on the consumption of energy for heating and the CO2 emissions in city buildings. The study was carried out using equivalized disposable income as the basis for the analysis and considered the economies of scale of households. The results are shown per inhabitant and household, by independently considering each city. Furthermore, to more clearly identify the influence of the population income, the study was also carried out without considering the influence of the climate. The method was implemented in the case of Spain. For this purpose, Spanish cities with more than 50,000 inhabitants were analyzed. The results show that, both per inhabitant and per household, the higher the income of the inhabitants, the greater the consumption of energy for heating and the greater the emissions in the city. This research aimed to help energy utilities and policy makers make appropriate decisions, namely, planning for the development of facilities that do not produce greenhouse gases, and enacting laws to achieve sustainable economies, respectively. The overall aim is to achieve the objective of mitigating the impact of emissions and the scarcity of energy resources.

CO2 Emissions in Buildings: A Synopsis of Current Studies

“…That is the reason why, in the classification, a different heading has been maintained from that of residential buildings: publications have been made with the sole scope of residential buildings and others join them with commercial ones. Residential and commercial buildings have been studied from different points of view: population density, reaching the conclusion that the greater the density, the greater the emissions [72]; economic income of the residents, eliminating the influence of the climate [73], without eliminating it [74], or analyzing only the effect of heating [75], observing in all cases that, the higher the income, the higher the CO 2 emissions; size of the city, finding that the larger the city, the greater the emissions [76]; climate, obtaining as a result that the more extreme the climate, the greater the emissions [77]; heating and air conditioning, with a considerable increase expected due to the use of air conditioning [78]; or only heating, taking into account the forecast growth of gross domestic product (GDP) and population [79].…”