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The impact of urbanization on carbon emissions of rural households: a study based on micro-level measurement

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Abstract

As urbanization continues to advance, the living standards of households in rural areas of China are improving, and carbon emissions are gradually increasing. Rural households will become a key area of emission reduction in the future. This paper uses panel data from the 2012 to 2018 China Family Panel Studies database to analyze the impact of urbanization on carbon emissions of Chinese rural households at the micro level. The results show that: (1) urbanization has an inverted "N"-shaped impact on rural household carbon emissions. (2) Different dimensions of urbanization have different effects on rural household carbon emissions, but there is synergy between them. (3) Mechanism analysis shows that the level of energy consumption, the cleaner structure of energy consumption, the level of consumption, and the upgrading of the consumption structure are important channels through which urbanization affects the carbon emissions of rural households. Finally, this paper puts forward relevant suggestions to provide scientific references and important inspirations for the green development of urbanization in developing countries around the world.

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Data Availability

All data needed to evaluate the conclusions in the paper are present in the paper. Additional data related to this paper may be requested from the authors.

Notes

  1. Data Source: National Bureau of Statistics, Energy Statistics Division: "China Energy Statistical Yearbook" (2012–2018), Beijing: China Statistical Publishing House.

  2. Data Source: Official website of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), United Nations (https://www.ipcc.ch/).

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Social Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2021D058; 2022D022) and the Soft Science Research Program of Shaanxi Province (2022KRM032; 2023-CX-RKX-103). The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions and corrections on the earlier draft of our paper.

Funding

This study was funded by Social Science Foundation of Shaanxi Province (2021D058; 2022D022), Soft Science Research Program of Shaanxi Province (2022KRM032; 2023-CX-RKX-103). The authors would like to thank the anonymous referees for their helpful suggestions and corrections on the earlier draft of our paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Economics and Management, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China

    Manman Gao, Man Wang, Huimin Cao, Zhenyu Yan & Jiapeng Xu

Authors
  1. Manman Gao
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  2. Man Wang
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  3. Huimin Cao
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Contributions

Manman Gao: Methodology, Writing-original draft, Writing-review & editing. Jiapeng Xu: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project administration. Man Wang: Conceptualization. Huimin Cao: Formal analysis, Writing-review & editing. Zhenyu Yan: Supervision, Project administration.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiapeng Xu.

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Conflict of interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

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Informed consent has been obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Appendix A

Appendix A

Eight major consumer expenditures of residents and corresponding related industrial sectors.

Consumption type

Related industrial sectors

Food

Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery; agricultural and sideline food processing industry;

Alcoholic beverages, beverages, and refined tea manufacturing industry

Clothing

Textile industry; textile, apparel, and apparel manufacturing industry;

Leather, fur, feather and their products and footwear manufacturing industry;

Household equipment

Furniture manufacturing industry; rubber and plastic products industry

Transportation and communication

Automobile manufacturing industry; railway, shipbuilding, aerospace and other Transport equipment manufacturing industry; computer, communication, and other electronic equipment manufacturing industry;

Medical Insurance

Pharmaceutical manufacturing industry

Housing

Construction industry; production and supply of tap water industry

Education, culture, and entertainment

Paper and paper products industry; printing and recording medium reproduction industry; cultural, educational, sports and entertainment goods manufacturing industry

Miscellaneous goods

Tobacco products industry; wood processing and wood, bamboo, rattan, palm, and straw products industry;electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry

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Gao, M., Wang, M., Cao, H. et al. The impact of urbanization on carbon emissions of rural households: a study based on micro-level measurement. Clean Techn Environ Policy (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-024-02830-1

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