Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fem/femwpa/2021.14.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Who emits CO2? Landscape of ecological inequalities in France from a critical perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Antonin Pottier

    (EHESS - CIRED)

  • Emmanuel Combet

    (ADEME)

  • Jean-Michel Cayla

    (EDF)

  • Simona de Lauretis

    (EDF – CIRED)

  • Franck Nadaud

    (CNRS - CIRED)

Abstract
This article provides a panorama of greenhouse gas (GHG) emission inequalities between French households. It presents in a detailed and critical manner the methodological conventions that are used to compute “household emissions”, including the related assumptions. The most common responsibility principle, the “consumer responsibility”, assigns to households the emissions of the products that they consume, resulting in the carbon footprint. It focuses attention on the contributions of individuals, on their choices, and it may obscure the role of non-individual actors and also the collective component of GHG emissions, and it neglects the dimensions of responsibility that are not related to consumption choices. We estimate the distribution of household carbon footprints based on data from the 2011 French Household Budget Survey. Household emissions tend to increase with income, but they also show a strong variability linked to geographical and technical factors that force the consumer to use fossil fuels. Based on sectoral surveys (ENTD 2008; PHEBUS 2013), we also reconstruct household CO2 emissions linked to housing and transport energy. For transport, emissions are proportional to the distance travelled due to the predominant use of private cars. Urban settlement patterns constrain both the length of daily commuting and access to less carbon-intensive modes of transport. For housing, while the size of the dwelling increases with income and distance from urban centres, the first factor to account for variability of emissions is the heating system: this has little to do with income but more to do with settlement patterns, which constrain access to the various energy carriers. Finally, we discuss the difficulties, both technical and conceptual, that are involved in estimating emissions from the super-rich (the top 1 percent).

Suggested Citation

  • Antonin Pottier & Emmanuel Combet & Jean-Michel Cayla & Simona de Lauretis & Franck Nadaud, 2021. "Who emits CO2? Landscape of ecological inequalities in France from a critical perspective," Working Papers 2021.14, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei.
    • Handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2021.14
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://feem-media.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/NDL2021-014.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2015. "Carbon and inequality: From Kyoto to Paris Trends in the global inequality of carbon emissions (1998-2013) & prospects for an equitable adaptation fund World Inequality Lab," PSE Working Papers halshs-02655266, HAL.
    2. Druckman, Angela & Jackson, Tim, 2009. "The carbon footprint of UK households 1990-2004: A socio-economically disaggregated, quasi-multi-regional input-output model," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(7), pages 2066-2077, May.
    3. Gill, Bernhard & Moeller, Simon, 2018. "GHG Emissions and the Rural-Urban Divide. A Carbon Footprint Analysis Based on the German Official Income and Expenditure Survey," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 160-169.
    4. Richard Heede, 2014. "Tracing anthropogenic carbon dioxide and methane emissions to fossil fuel and cement producers, 1854–2010," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 122(1), pages 229-241, January.
    5. Lenzen, Manfred, 1998. "Energy and greenhouse gas cost of living for Australia during 1993/94," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 23(6), pages 497-516.
    6. Julie Anne Cronin & Don Fullerton & Steven Sexton, 2019. "Vertical and Horizontal Redistributions from a Carbon Tax and Rebate," Journal of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, University of Chicago Press, vol. 6(S1), pages 169-208.
    7. Thomas Douenne, 2018. "The vertical and horizontal distributive effects of energy taxes," Working Papers 2018.10, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    8. Arnold Tukker & Hector Pollitt & Maurits Henkemans, 2020. "Consumption-based carbon accounting: sense and sensibility," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(S1), pages 1-13, April.
    9. Pottier, Antonin, 2022. "Expenditure elasticity and income elasticity of GHG emissions: A survey of literature on household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    10. Berry, Audrey, 2019. "The distributional effects of a carbon tax and its impact on fuel poverty: A microsimulation study in the French context," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 81-94.
    11. Christian Gollier, 2019. "Le prix du risque climatique et le prix du carbone," Revue d'économie financière, Association d'économie financière, vol. 0(1), pages 171-182.
    12. Golley, Jane & Meng, Xin, 2012. "Income inequality and carbon dioxide emissions: The case of Chinese urban households," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(6), pages 1864-1872.
    13. Rudiger Dornbusch & James M. Poterba (ed.), 1991. "Global Warming: Economic Policy Responses," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026204126x, April.
    14. Roca, Jordi & Serrano, Monica, 2007. "Income growth and atmospheric pollution in Spain: An input-output approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 230-242, June.
    15. Arnold Tukker & Richard Wood & Sarah Schmidt, 2020. "Towards accepted procedures for calculating international consumption-based carbon accounts," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(S1), pages 90-106, April.
    16. Mette Wier & Manfred Lenzen & Jesper Munksgaard & Sinne Smed, 2001. "Effects of Household Consumption Patterns on CO2 Requirements," Economic Systems Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(3), pages 259-274.
    17. Thomas Douenne, 2020. "The Vertical and Horizontal Distributive Effects of Energy Taxes: A Case Study of a French Policy," The Energy Journal, International Association for Energy Economics, vol. 0(Number 3), pages 231-254.
    18. James M. Poterba, 1991. "Tax Policy to Combat Global Warming: On Designing a Carbon Tax," NBER Working Papers 3649, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    19. Munksgaard, Jesper & Pedersen, Klaus Alsted, 2001. "CO2 accounts for open economies: producer or consumer responsibility?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 327-334, March.
    20. Iain Hay & Jonathan V. Beaverstock (ed.), 2016. "Handbook on Wealth and the Super-Rich," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 15737.
    21. Büchs, Milena & Schnepf, Sylke V., 2013. "Who emits most? Associations between socio-economic factors and UK households' home energy, transport, indirect and total CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 114-123.
    22. Lévay, Petra Zsuzsa & Vanhille, Josefine & Goedemé, Tim & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2021. "The association between the carbon footprint and the socio-economic characteristics of Belgian households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    23. Pearce, David W, 1991. "The Role of Carbon Taxes in Adjusting to Global Warming," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 101(407), pages 938-948, July.
    24. Cyril Bourgeois & Louis-Gaëtan Giraudet & Philippe Quirion, 2019. "Social-environmental-economic trade-offs associated with carbon-tax revenue recycling [Arbitrages économiques, sociaux et environnementaux pour le recyclage des revenus de la taxe carbone]," CIRED Working Papers hal-02073964, HAL.
    25. Isaksen, Elisabeth T. & Narbel, Patrick A., 2017. "A carbon footprint proportional to expenditure - A case for Norway?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 152-165.
    26. Ala-Mantila, Sanna & Heinonen, Jukka & Junnila, Seppo, 2014. "Relationship between urbanization, direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions, and expenditures: A multivariate analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 129-139.
    27. Peters, Glen P., 2008. "From production-based to consumption-based national emission inventories," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(1), pages 13-23, March.
    28. Stiglitz, Joseph E., 2019. "Addressing climate change through price and non-price interventions," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 119(C), pages 594-612.
    29. Ilona M. Otto & Kyoung Mi Kim & Nika Dubrovsky & Wolfgang Lucht, 2019. "Shift the focus from the super-poor to the super-rich," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 9(2), pages 82-84, February.
    30. Dominik Wiedenhofer & Dabo Guan & Zhu Liu & Jing Meng & Ning Zhang & Yi-Ming Wei, 2017. "Unequal household carbon footprints in China," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 75-80, January.
    31. Bastianoni, Simone & Pulselli, Federico Maria & Tiezzi, Enzo, 2004. "The problem of assigning responsibility for greenhouse gas emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 253-257, July.
    32. John Barrett & Glen Peters & Thomas Wiedmann & Kate Scott & Manfred Lenzen & Katy Roelich & Corinne Le Qu�r�, 2013. "Consumption-based GHG emission accounting: a UK case study," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 13(4), pages 451-470, July.
    33. Fremstad, Anders & Underwood, Anthony & Zahran, Sammy, 2018. "The Environmental Impact of Sharing: Household and Urban Economies in CO2 Emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 137-147.
    34. Kevin Ummel, 2014. "Who Pollutes? A Household-Level Database of America’s Greenhouse Gas Footprint - Working Paper 381," Working Papers 381, Center for Global Development.
    35. Weber, Christopher L. & Matthews, H. Scott, 2008. "Quantifying the global and distributional aspects of American household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 66(2-3), pages 379-391, June.
    36. Bastien Girod & Peter De Haan, 2010. "More or Better? A Model for Changes in Household Greenhouse Gas Emissions due to Higher Income," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 14(1), pages 31-49, January.
    37. Lee Liu, 2015. "A critical examination of the consumption‐based accounting approach: has the blaming of consumers gone too far?," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(1), pages 1-8, January.
    38. Underwood, Anthony & Zahran, Sammy, 2015. "The carbon implications of declining household scale economies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 182-190.
    39. Dubois, Ute, 2012. "From targeting to implementation: The role of identification of fuel poor households," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 107-115.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Pottier, Antonin, 2022. "Expenditure elasticity and income elasticity of GHG emissions: A survey of literature on household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. Osorio, Pilar & Tobarra, María-Ángeles & Tomás, Manuel, 2024. "Are there gender differences in household carbon footprints? Evidence from Spain," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Pottier, Antonin, 2022. "Expenditure elasticity and income elasticity of GHG emissions: A survey of literature on household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    2. André, Mathias & Bourgeois, Alexandre & Combet, Emmanuel & Lequien, Matthieu & Pottier, Antonin, 2024. "Challenges in measuring the distribution of carbon footprints: The role of product and price heterogeneity," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 220(C).
    3. Theine, Hendrik & Humer, Stefan & Moser, Mathias & Schnetzer, Matthias, 2022. "Emissions inequality: Disparities in income, expenditure, and the carbon footprint in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C).
    4. Lévay, Petra Zsuzsa & Goedemé, Tim & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2023. "Income and expenditure elasticity of household carbon footprints. Some methodological considerations," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    5. Lévay, Petra Zsuzsa & Vanhille, Josefine & Goedemé, Tim & Verbist, Gerlinde, 2021. "The association between the carbon footprint and the socio-economic characteristics of Belgian households," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Schuster, Antonia & Lindner, Michael & Otto, Ilona M., 2023. "Whose house is on fire? Identifying socio-demographic and housing characteristics driving differences in the UK household CO2 emissions," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    7. Starr, Jared & Nicolson, Craig & Ash, Michael & Markowitz, Ezra M. & Moran, Daniel, 2023. "Assessing U.S. consumers' carbon footprints reveals outsized impact of the top 1%," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    8. Ravigné, Emilien & Ghersi, Frédéric & Nadaud, Franck, 2022. "Is a fair energy transition possible? Evidence from the French low-carbon strategy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    9. Zhang, Yimeng & Wang, Feng & Zhang, Bing, 2023. "The impacts of household structure transitions on household carbon emissions in China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    10. Age Poom & Rein Ahas, 2016. "How Does the Environmental Load of Household Consumption Depend on Residential Location?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(9), pages 1-18, August.
    11. Jiang, Yida & Long, Yin & Liu, Qiaoling & Dowaki, Kiyoshi & Ihara, Tomohiko, 2020. "Carbon emission quantification and decarbonization policy exploration for the household sector - Evidence from 51 Japanese cities," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 140(C).
    12. Wang, Keying & Cui, Yongyan & Zhang, Hongwu & Shi, Xunpeng & Xue, Jinjun & Yuan, Zhao, 2022. "Household carbon footprints inequality in China: Drivers, components and dynamics," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    13. Isaksen, Elisabeth T. & Narbel, Patrick A., 2017. "A carbon footprint proportional to expenditure - A case for Norway?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 152-165.
    14. Moises Neil V. Seriño & Stephan Klasen, 2015. "Estimation and Determinants of the Philippines' Household Carbon Footprint," The Developing Economies, Institute of Developing Economies, vol. 53(1), pages 44-62, March.
    15. Tilov, Ivan & Farsi, Mehdi & Volland, Benjamin, 2019. "Interactions in Swiss households’ energy demand: A holistic approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 136-149.
    16. Franco Solís, Alberto & F.T. Avelino, André & Carrascal-Incera, André, 2020. "The evolution of household-induced value chains and their environmental implications," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 174(C).
    17. Fang Shen & Zibibula Simayi & Shengtian Yang & Yusuyunjiang Mamitimin & Xiaofen Zhang & Yunyi Zhang, 2023. "A Bibliometric Review of Household Carbon Footprint during 2000–2022," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(7), pages 1-25, April.
    18. Berthe, Alexandre & Elie, Luc, 2015. "Mechanisms explaining the impact of economic inequality on environmental deterioration," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 191-200.
    19. Markaki, M. & Belegri-Roboli, A. & Sarafidis, Υ. & Mirasgedis, S., 2017. "The carbon footprint of Greek households (1995–2012)," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 206-215.
    20. Smetschka, Barbara & Wiedenhofer, Dominik & Egger, Claudine & Haselsteiner, Edeltraud & Moran, Daniel & Gaube, Veronika, 2019. "Time Matters: The Carbon Footprint of Everyday Activities in Austria," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1-1.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Carbon Footprint; Emissions Inequality; Household Expenditure Distribution; Responsibility;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D12 - Microeconomics - - Household Behavior - - - Consumer Economics: Empirical Analysis
    • D30 - Microeconomics - - Distribution - - - General
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth
    • R20 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - Household Analysis - - - General

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fem:femwpa:2021.14. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Alberto Prina Cerai (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/feemmit.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.