The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability

Ivanova, Diana; Wood, Richard

doi:10.1017/sus.2020.12

Cited by 141 publications

(112 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…Energy is related to emissions and other environmental hazards, such as resource extraction and pollution, for instance during oil or gas leaks. It is thus no surprise that the inequality in emissions is very similar to the one in energy (Ivanova & Wood, 2020;Oswald et al, 2020). Consequentially, when a few people use a lot of energy and many people do not, the responsibility for environmental damage concentrates among a few.…”

Section: Simulation No 1: Varying the Global Income Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global redistribution of income and household energy footprints: a computational thought experiment

et al. 2021

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Non-technical summary Global income inequality and energy consumption inequality are related. High-income households consume more energy than low-income ones, and for different purposes. Here, we explore the global household energy consumption implications of global income redistribution. We show that global income inequality shapes not only inequalities of energy consumption but the quantity and composition of overall energy demand. Our results call for the inclusion of income distribution into energy system models, as well as into energy and climate policy. Technical summary Despite a rapidly growing number of studies on the relationship between inequality and energy, there is little research estimating the effect of income redistribution on energy demand. We contribute to this debate by proposing a simple but granular and data-driven model of the global income distribution and of global household energy consumption. We isolate the effect of income distribution on household energy consumption and move beyond the assumption of aggregate income–energy elasticities. First, we model expenditure as a function of income. Second, we determine budget shares of expenditure for a variety of products and services by employing product-granular income elasticities of demand. Subsequently, we apply consumption-based final energy intensities to product and services to obtain energy footprint accounts. Testing variants of the global income distribution, we find that the ‘energy costs’ of equity are small. Equitable and inequitable distributions of income, however, entail distinct structural change in energy system terms. In an equitable world, fewer people live in energy poverty and more energy is consumed for subsistence and necessities, instead of luxury and transport. Social media summary Equality in global income shifts household energy footprints towards subsistence, while inequality shifts them towards transport and luxury.

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Section: Simulation No 1: Varying the Global Income Distributionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Global redistribution of income and household energy footprints: a computational thought experiment

et al. 2021

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“…We matched the HBSs household expenditure in 2010 with the environmental and economic structure in EXIOBASE for the same year. For a detailed overview of the harmonization steps between consumption from HBSs and the environmental intensities from EXIOBASE, see SM1 and elsewhere [4,31].…”

Section: Databasesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our analysis was affected by limitations regarding the representativeness, harmonization and measurement errors of the HBSs. A detailed account of these limitations [26] and their implications for the carbon and energy footprint calculations can be found elsewhere [3,31]. There may be higher sampling error and inflated variation associated with infrequent purchases [26], for instance second homes [40], personal vehicles, flights or furniture, and their associated environmental impacts.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Larger households may also be more likely to purchase items in bulk and, thus, pay lower prices per item. Prior work discusses the limitations associated with the monetary-based approach [2,31,44].…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There may also be offsetting effects such as using the car more intensively or having a larger car in single-car households [55]. Furthermore, no household economies of scale were noted for other transport modes such as air travel, for which there is a growing demand with rising incomes in Europe [31].…”

Section: Equipment Transport and Other Consumptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Household Sharing for Carbon and Energy Reductions: The Case of EU Countries

Ivanova

Büchs

2020

Energies

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As households get smaller worldwide, the extent of sharing within households reduces, resulting in rising per capita energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This article examines for the first time the differences in household economies of scale across EU countries as a way to support reductions in energy use and GHG emissions, while considering differences in effects across consumption domains and urban-rural typology. A country-comparative analysis is important to facilitate the formulation of context-specific initiatives and policies for resource sharing. We find that one-person households are most carbon- and energy-intensive per capita with an EU average of 9.2 tCO2eq/cap and 0.14 TJ/cap, and a total contribution of about 17% to the EU’s carbon and energy use. Two-person households contribute about 31% to the EU carbon and energy footprint, while those of five or more members add about 9%. The average carbon and energy footprints of an EU household of five or more is about half that of a one-person average household, amounting to 4.6 tCO2eq/cap and 0.07 TJ/cap. Household economies of scale vary substantially across consumption categories, urban-rural typology and EU countries. Substantial household economies of scale are noted for home energy, real estate services and miscellaneous services such as waste treatment and water supply; yet, some of the weakest household economies of scale occur in high carbon domains such as transport. Furthermore, Northern and Central European states are more likely to report strong household economies of scale—particularly in sparsely populated areas—compared to Southern and Eastern European countries. We discuss ways in which differences in household economies of scale may be linked to social, political and climatic conditions. We also provide policy recommendations for encouraging sharing within and between households as a contribution to climate change mitigation.

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Toward sustainable development: Connecting systems thinking competency and carbon footprint knowledge

Ratinen

Linnanen

Claudelin

et al. 2022

Sustainable Development

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Previous research on field of sustainable development has shown that individuals' systems thinking competency promotes and predicts their sustainability competency and pro-environmental behavior well. Systems thinking competency also enables us to focus more on large-scale climate change mitigation actions. Previous surveys indicated that Finns have changed their behavior for mitigating climate change, but this has been not reflected in decreased consumption-based calculated carbon footprints because large-scale mitigation measures have not materialized. The present study assessed Finns' systems thinking competency (n = 2006) and knowledge of how to reduce their household carbon footprint. The survey data collected were analyzed using explorative factor analysis, hierarchical regression analysis, t-test, and analysis of variance. The results indicate that Finns view their own systems thinking competency related to climate change as not very high, and heir assessments vary widely.Moreover, their knowledge of how to reduce their household carbon footprint is somewhat low and is geared toward small-scale mitigation actions. The results can be used to inform environmental policy and sustainability education priorities.

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The unequal distribution of household carbon footprints in Europe and its link to sustainability

Cited by 141 publications

References 53 publications

Global redistribution of income and household energy footprints: a computational thought experiment

Global redistribution of income and household energy footprints: a computational thought experiment

Household Sharing for Carbon and Energy Reductions: The Case of EU Countries

Toward sustainable development: Connecting systems thinking competency and carbon footprint knowledge

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