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Beyond the nation-state narrative: an empirical inquiry into the cross-country and cross-income-group carbon consumption patterns

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2021

Ying Chen Open the ORCID record for Ying Chen [Opens in a new window]  and
Güney Işıkara
Ying Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Economics, The New School University, New York, NY, USA
Güney Işıkara
Affiliation:
Department of Liberal Studies, New York University, New York, NY, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: yingc@newschool.edu
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Abstract

The concern for inequality, growth and development is undoubtedly crucial in the context of climate change mitigation and adaptation. However, most studies either rely on the nation-state estimates of carbon emissions to propose a uniform nation-wide growth (or degrowth) strategy, or they tailor the method to assess the inequality of one country at a time, making a cross-country cross-income comparison difficult. To fill this analytical gap, we synthesize the existing methods of emission calculations and calculate the level of carbon emissions associated with given income deciles of household consumption in five countries, namely China, Germany, India, the UK and USA. We find that the within-country inequality varies among countries, with the ratio between the top and bottom income deciles ranging from three to nine at the household level. We also find that the carbon emissions of the top income group in urban China is almost comparable to that of their peer group in the US, UK and Germany. Based on these results, we discuss the use of the remaining global carbon budget in the context of development and inequality.

Keywords

degrowthenvironmental justiceglobal warminggrowthinequalitymitigation

JEL classification

Q54: Climate • Natural Disasters and Their Management • Global Warming Q56: Environment and Development • Environment and Trade • Sustainability • Environmental Accounts and Accounting • Environmental Equity • Population Growth F64: Environment
Type
Research Article
Information
Environment and Development Economics , Volume 27 , Issue 1 , February 2022 , pp. 67 - 85
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

The online version of this article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the changes has also been published at: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X21000164

†

The names of the authors, with equal contribution to the completion of the project, are listed alphabetically.

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