Zheng, Heran;
Long, Yin;
Wood, Richard;
Moran, Daniel;
Zhang, Zhengkai;
Meng, Jing;
Feng, Kuishuang;
... Guan, Dabo; + view all
(2022)
Ageing society in developed countries challenges carbon mitigation.
Nature Climate Change
, 12
(3)
pp. 241-248.
10.1038/s41558-022-01302-y.
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Abstract
Populations in developed countries are ageing. However, the impact of senior citizens’ consumption on global carbon mitigation is poorly understood. Here we find that senior citizens have played a leading role in driving up GHG emissions in the past decade and are on the way to becoming the largest contributor. Considering the greenhouse gas footprint of household consumption across age groups in 32 developed countries, the senior contribution to national total consumption-based emissions increased from 25.2% to 32.7% between 2005 and 2015. Seniors in the United States and Australia have the highest per capita footprint, twice the Western average. The trend is mainly due to changes in expenditure patterns of seniors. The increasing carbon footprint of senior citizens will probably drive domestic production yet have limited effects on international carbon leakage. The demographic change poses more challenges in local mitigation and calls for deeper public mitigation efforts.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Ageing society in developed countries challenges carbon mitigation |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1038/s41558-022-01302-y |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-022-01302-y |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Ageing society, carbon footprint, developed countries, net wealth, expenditure |
| UCL classification: | UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10147997 |
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