Urban-rural household carbon emissions and their inequality in China: From the perspective of consumption structure

Reducing household carbon emissions (HCE) and their inequality is a global concern to promote fair environmental sustainability. However, the research on analyzing this issue across urban-rural households with different consumption structures is scarce, also not holistically capturing the association between emissions and inequality. Based on multi-source data, we unveiled the urban-rural HCE and their inequality of China from the perspective of consumption structure. Results indicated that: (a) Urban average HCE (2.91 tons/household) were higher than rural average HCE (2.27 tons/household) in 2020, exhibiting a noticeable urban-rural net gap. With larger consumption volumes and more consumption activities, the HCE and their urban-rural gap of development and enjoyment-oriented (DEO) households outweighed those of survival-oriented (SUO) households. (b) Rural and SUO households demonstrated a more conspicuous within-group inequality in HCE than urban and DEO households, respectively, attributed to a lack of common improvement in residential income and consumption levels. (c) The number of L-H (low emissions and high inequality) and H-L (high emissions and low equality) provinces surpassed that of others, hinting a potential inverse relationship between HCE and their inequality at the regional level. L-H provinces were mainly distributed in the south, while H-L provinces were concentrated in the north and certain eastern developed areas. This study provides important reference for different provinces in China to reduce urban-rural HCE and advance their fair governance in the process of optimizing consumption structure, conducive to facilitating low-carbon and green lifestyles across households.