eprintid: 10094556 rev_number: 19 eprint_status: archive userid: 608 dir: disk0/10/09/45/56 datestamp: 2020-04-07 12:54:33 lastmod: 2021-11-27 00:06:59 status_changed: 2020-04-07 12:54:33 type: article metadata_visibility: show creators_name: Mi, Z creators_name: Zheng, J creators_name: Meng, J creators_name: Ou, J creators_name: Hubacek, K creators_name: Liu, Z creators_name: Coffman, D creators_name: Stern, N creators_name: Liang, S creators_name: Wei, Y-M title: Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China ispublished: pub divisions: UCL divisions: B04 divisions: C04 keywords: Carbon and energy, Climate change, Economics note: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. 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. date: 2020-07 date_type: published publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC official_url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y oa_status: green full_text_type: other language: eng primo: open primo_central: open_green verified: verified_manual elements_id: 1774778 doi: 10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y lyricists_name: Coffman, D'Maris lyricists_name: Meng, Jing lyricists_name: Mi, Zhifu lyricists_id: DCOFF28 lyricists_id: JMENG17 lyricists_id: ZMIXX58 actors_name: Coffman, D'Maris actors_id: DCOFF28 actors_role: owner full_text_status: public publication: Nature Sustainability volume: 3 pagerange: 529-537 citation: Mi, Z; Zheng, J; Meng, J; Ou, J; Hubacek, K; Liu, Z; Coffman, D; ... Wei, Y-M; + view all <#> Mi, Z; Zheng, J; Meng, J; Ou, J; Hubacek, K; Liu, Z; Coffman, D; Stern, N; Liang, S; Wei, Y-M; - view fewer <#> (2020) Economic development and converging household carbon footprints in China. Nature Sustainability , 3 pp. 529-537. 10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y <https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0504-y>. Green open access document_url: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10094556/1/4092_3_merged_1583233372.pdf