Factors of carbon emissions from Chinese urban and rural residents: a time-varying study

ABSTRACT

This study investigates the factors influencing the carbon emission of Chinese residents in urban and rural areas. Drawing on the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI), the results of this study identify the increasing demand for energy consumption from residential buildings and the strengthening of the volume effect as the primary causes for the surging carbon emission by residents. Rural areas feature a larger cumulative contribution to carbon emission due to energy demand from housing and transportation and a higher contribution to the volume effect of energy consumption. In contrast, urbanization, a key driver for residents’ energy consumption, shows a year-by-year decline.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban-rural divide
• energy consumption
• carbon emission
• logarithmic mean divisia index
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Science Foundation of Tianjin [grant number TJTJ18-004] and the National Social Science Foundation of China [grant number 19CTJ016].