China?s carbon inequality of households: Perspectives of the aging society and urban-rural gaps

To take the carbon reduction responsibility into consumption activities and reveal the discrepancy of carbon footprint (CF) among different types of households, this study investigates CF and inequality of household consumption in 25 provinces in China by calculating combing eight categories covering both direct and indirect household carbon emissions. Importantly, the aging society and urban-rural gaps are considered. The findings indicate that per capita CF varies appreciably among the different household groups, and the aged tend to generate less emission. However, the CF of a young person may not decrease as he/she ages owing to completely diverse expenditure preferences from current older people. We revealed that people living in urban regions have larger CF than those in rural regions, and the urban-rural gap promotes inequality in household CF. Furthermore, there is a correlation between the aging of population and urban-rural gaps. The young people migrate from villages to cities, leaving the elderly and children at villages. Therefore, the aging of population in rural regions is worse than that in cities, which raises the carbon inequality among households.