@@ -147,9 +147,7 @@ We first decomposed national household final demand expenditure in the Environme
The energy footprint is the gross total energy use energy extension in EXIOBASE, which converts final energy consumption in the IEA energy balance data from the territorial to residence principle following SEEA energy accounting (ref - Stadler et al.). The carbon footprint includes CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6, HFCs and PFCs, from combustion, non-combustion, agriculture and waste, but not land-use change. For both footprints, direct energy use and carbon emissions from households is included, with the total split between shelter, transport and manufactured goods using further data from EUROSTAT on this split.
Finally, we aggregated the data of 28 European countries with 5 income groups each into 10 European expenditure groups, to decompose the total European household energy and carbon footprint by European expenditure decile, ranking each national income group according to their mean consumption expenditure in PPS. We call these European expenditure deciles, although only countries with EUROSTAT data from 2005 to 2015 are included, which excludes Italy and Luxembourg, but includes the UK, Norway and Turkey. Data on decarbonization scenarios, especially final energy use, is from the IIASA scenario database [ref], and work by Grubler et al. (2018) [ ] and Millward-Hopkins et al. (2020) [ ]. (IEA, Boell?)
All data and procedures are described in detail in the supplementary information (SI).
Finally, we aggregated the data of 28 European countries with 5 income groups each into 10 European expenditure groups, to decompose the total European household energy and carbon footprint by European expenditure decile, ranking each national income group according to their mean consumption expenditure in PPS. We call these European expenditure deciles, although only countries with EUROSTAT data from 2005 to 2015 are included, which excludes Italy and Luxembourg, but includes the UK, Norway and Turkey. Data on decarbonization scenarios, especially final energy use, is from the IIASA scenario database [ref], and work by Grubler et al. (2018) [ ] and Millward-Hopkins et al. (2020) [ ]. (IEA, Boell?) All data and procedures are described in detail in the supplementary information (SI).
Consumption-based indicators such as the energy and greenhouse gas footprint of households are largely determined by their spending levels. An inequality of household expenditures in a population therefore implies an inequality of their carbon-energy footprints. Figures 1a-c show European households by decile of expenditure and their associated footprints for GHGs and energy in 2015. The figures show that increasing expenditure generally translated into larger footprints, but that the inequality decreased from expenditure to energy to greenhouse gas emissions with 10:10 ratios (the top decile divided by the bottom decile) of `r exp_10_10`, `r energy_10_10` and `r co2eq_10_10`, respectively. Total expenditure ranged from `r exp_bottom_decile` trn€ to `r exp_top_decile` trn€ (or `r fd_pae_bottom_decile`€ to `r fd_pae_top_decile`€ per adult equivalent) across bottom and top decile, the energy footprint from `r energy_bottom_decile` EJ to `r energy_top_decile` EJ (or `r energy_pae_bottom_decile` GJ/ae to `r energy_pae_top_decile` GJ/ae), and the GHG footprint from `r co2eq_bottom_decile` MtCO2eq to `r co2eq_top_decile` MtCO2eq (or `r co2eq_pae_bottom_decile` tCO2eq/ae to `r co2eq_pae_top_decile` tCO2eq/ae). The reason for this is evident from figures 1d-f. Both the energy intensity measured as energy use per € expenditure (d) and the carbon intensity measured as GHGs per unit of energy use (f) gradually decrease from bottom to top expenditure decile. The average energy intensity of consumption decreased from `r mean_energy_intens_bottom_decile` MJ/€ in the bottom decile to less than half (`r mean_energy_intens_top_decile` MJ/€) in the top decile. Additionally, the GHG intensity of energy use was also higher in the bottom decile (`r mean_co2eq_of_energy_intens_bottom_decile` gCO2eq/TJ) compared to the top decile (`r mean_co2eq_of_energy_intens_top_decile` gCO2eq/TJ). There is a clear trend of decreasing intensities across expenditure deciles even though the variance in the lower deciles is much higher. The GHG intensity of consumption (figure 1e) combines the effects of the intensities of 1d and 1f. [*The higher GHG intensity of energy use is likely due to a larger share of emission intensive energy carriers in the energy system. The decreasing energy intensity per expenditure is due to either inefficient energy technologies or energy subsidies in poorer areas in Europe.*]
Consumption-based indicators such as the energy and greenhouse gas footprint of households are largely determined by their spending levels. An inequality of household expenditures in a population therefore implies an inequality of their carbon-energy footprints. Figures 1a-c show European households by decile of expenditure and their associated footprints for GHGs and energy in 2015. The figures show that increasing expenditure generally translated into larger footprints, but that the inequality decreased from expenditure to energy to greenhouse gas emissions with 10:10 ratios (the top decile divided by the bottom decile) of `r exp_10_10`, `r energy_10_10` and `r co2eq_10_10`, respectively. Total expenditure ranged from `r exp_bottom_decile` trn€ to `r exp_top_decile` trn€ (or `r fd_pae_bottom_decile`€ to `r fd_pae_top_decile`€ per adult equivalent) across bottom and top decile, the energy footprint from `r energy_bottom_decile` EJ to `r energy_top_decile` EJ (or `r energy_pae_bottom_decile` GJ/ae to `r energy_pae_top_decile` GJ/ae), and the GHG footprint from `r co2eq_bottom_decile` MtCO2eq to `r co2eq_top_decile` MtCO2eq (or `r co2eq_pae_bottom_decile` tCO2eq/ae to `r co2eq_pae_top_decile` tCO2eq/ae). The reason for this is evident from figures 1d-f. Both the energy intensity measured as energy use per € expenditure (d) and the carbon intensity measured as GHGs per unit of energy use (f) gradually decrease from bottom to top expenditure decile. The average energy intensity of consumption decreased from `r mean_energy_intens_bottom_decile` MJ/€ in the bottom decile to less than half (`r mean_energy_intens_top_decile` MJ/€) in the top decile. Additionally, the GHG intensity of energy use was also higher in the bottom decile (`r mean_co2eq_of_energy_intens_bottom_decile` gCO2eq/TJ) compared to the top decile (`r mean_co2eq_of_energy_intens_top_decile` gCO2eq/TJ). There is a clear trend of decreasing intensities across expenditure deciles even though the variance in the lower deciles is much higher. The GHG intensity of consumption (figure 1e) combines the effects of the intensities of 1d and 1f. The higher GHG intensity of energy use is likely due to a larger share of emission intensive energy carriers in the energy system. The decreasing energy intensity per expenditure is due to either inefficient energy technologies or energy subsidies in poorer areas in Europe.
```{r figure1, out.width="98%", fig.cap="Expenditure and carbon-energy footprints and intensities across European expenditure deciles. Total expenditures (a), energy footprint (b), and GHG footprint (c) per decile. Energy intensity as energy footprint per expenditure (d), GHG intensity as GHG footprint per expenditure (e), and GHG intensity as GHG footprint per energy footprint (f)."}
