Carbon Footprint of Residents’ Housing Consumption and Its Driving Forces in China

A large population size and rapid economic growth have resulted in a huge amount of housing consumption in China. Therefore, it is critical to identify the determinants of housing carbon footprint (CF) and prepare appropriate carbon mitigation measures. By employing the IPCC accounting method, input-output analysis and the stochastic impacts by regression on population, affluence, and technology (STIRPAT) model, this study aims to study the spatio-temporal patterns and identify the driving factors of housing CF. The results show that regional disparities and urban-rural differences existed during the period 2012–2017. The results of the extended STIRPAT model show that population scale and energy consumption per unit building area are the two dominant contributors to the housing CF increments in all areas. While, family size only shows significant negative impact in eastern and western regions, the per capita disposable income only induces higher housing CF in rural areas, and energy structure had a remarkable positive impact in urban area of western region and all rural areas. Policy recommendations are proposed to mitigate the overall housing CF, including; controlling population growth and promoting urbanization benefits; encouraging green consumption; optimizing household energy consumption structure, and; enhancing residential building energy management.