Uncovering Household Carbon Footprint Drivers in an Aging, Shrinking Society
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Materials and Methods
2.1. Quantification of Carbon Footprint by Household Consumption
2.2. Index Decomposition Analysis and Structural Decomposition Analysis
2.3. Data
2.4. Limitations
3. Results and Discussion
3.1. Overall Trends of Total Direct and Indirect CO2 Emissions
3.2. Changes in Direct and Indirect CO2 Emissions in Different Sectors and Age Groups
3.3. Decomposition Results
3.3.1. Driving Forces of Total Direct and Indirect CO2 Emissions
3.3.2. Driving Forces of Indirect CO2 Emissions of Key Sectors
4. Conclusions
- Among household-related CF during 1990–2005, indirect CO2 emissions kept increasing from 1990, although direct CO2 emissions slowed down between 2000 and 2005.
- Per capita CO2 emissions of direct and indirect emissions by household age group showed similar distributions during the studied period. Emissions begin to rise from the 20s and decline after peaking in the 50s. In addition, the level of both direct and indirect emissions per capita did not change radically during the analyzed 15-year period.
- The two decomposition analyses for direct and indirect CO2 emissions showed that the effects of changes in household size due to the trend away from nuclear family structures and production technology progress restrained indirect CO2 emissions to a large extent. On the other hand, the results also showed that if Japan continues to follow current consumption and demographic trajectories (i.e., the aging society becoming an ‘aged’ society), both of those emissions will increase regarding the contributions from related drivers.
- Decomposition analysis for the sectoral CF showed that the main factors leading to the increase in indirect CO2 emissions were the increase in the number of households and consumption volume. Regarding aging and a reduced birth rate, the increase in small-scale households has increased the overall number of households in Japan due to changing family structures, which has expanded household consumption volume per capita—an important driving force behind increasing household CF.
Author Contributions
Funding
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
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Year | Average Annualized Increase | Growth Rate (between 1990 and 2005) | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1990 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | |||
Direct CO2 emissions (Mt-CO2) | 103.6 | 124.2 | 143.6 | 142.5 | 2.6 | 37.5% |
Indirect CO2 emissions (Mt-CO2) | 473.5 | 542.6 | 537.9 | 572.3 | 6.6 | 20.9% |
Total CO2 emissions (Mt-CO2) | 577.2 | 666.9 | 681.5 | 714.8 | 9.2 | 23.8% |
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Huang, Y.; Shigetomi, Y.; Chapman, A.; Matsumoto, K. Uncovering Household Carbon Footprint Drivers in an Aging, Shrinking Society. Energies 2019, 12, 3745. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193745
Huang Y, Shigetomi Y, Chapman A, Matsumoto K. Uncovering Household Carbon Footprint Drivers in an Aging, Shrinking Society. Energies. 2019; 12(19):3745. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193745
Chicago/Turabian StyleHuang, Yuzhuo, Yosuke Shigetomi, Andrew Chapman, and Ken’ichi Matsumoto. 2019. "Uncovering Household Carbon Footprint Drivers in an Aging, Shrinking Society" Energies 12, no. 19: 3745. https://doi.org/10.3390/en12193745