Household Energy Consumption Patterns and Carbon Emissions for the Megacities—Evidence from Guangzhou, China

Abstract

Over the last 20 years, energy consumption in the residential sector in China has grown rapidly, and the growth is faster than that of any other energy form. To assess the limitations of the spatial characteristics of household energy consumption in urban areas, this paper selected Guangzhou as the research area. Specifically, the old town, core area, central area and peri-urban areas, which best reflect the evolutionary characteristics and spatial differentiation of households, were assessed. Based on the surveyed database of community-scale household energy consumption (N = 1097), the spatial heterogeneity of household energy consumption and carbon emissions at the community scale were assessed through exploratory spatial data analysis and the standard deviation ellipse method. The results report that (1) the main sources of energy consumption in Guangzhou households were water heating equipment, kitchen equipment and refrigeration equipment, which were related to the climatic conditions and cultural traditions of the city. (2) There was significant spatial heterogeneity in the carbon emissions from household domestic energy use in Guangzhou. (3) The economic level, the effects of the Lingnan culture and the characteristics of residents are the main drivers influencing the spatial characteristics of household energy consumption and carbon emissions in Guangzhou. We propose that policy development should actively promote energy-efficient equipment, such as water heating and cooling equipment, in urban households and take full account of the basic household energy needs of residents in old urban and suburban areas while promoting the development of low-carbon buildings.

Predicting Neighborhood-Level Residential Carbon Emission from Street-view Images Using Computer Vision and Machine Learning

“…In Figure 10f, which is similar to the average level, but there is still a certain gap when predicting higher CE values. To the best of our knowledge, currently there are just few mesoscale residential CE models (Jiang et al, 2022). As a cross-reference validation, we selected three similar studies that also focus on household residential and travel CE to compare with our CE model.…”

Direct and Indirect Carbon Emission from Household Consumption Based on LMDI and SDA Model: A Decomposition and Comparison Analysis

“…Energy consumption is considered to be the major contributor to CO 2 emissions [3]. Since the 1990s, the household energy consumption in some developed countries has exceeded that of the industrial sector, and researchers have begun to recognize that household carbon emissions (HCEs) are an important source of carbon emissions [4][5][6]. The impact of household consumption on energy and the environment has attracted worldwide attention [7][8][9].…”

“…Household energy consumption and carbon emissions are increasing with the improvement of living standards of residents, and thus has become one of the popular research topics in recent years [15,16]. Scholars have conducted a series of studies at the national, regional, and city levels [6,17,18]. The advancement of urbanization has led to urban population growth and increased consumption of energy, resources, and electricity, resulting in additional carbon emissions [3,19].…”

Influencing Factors of Direct Carbon Emissions of Households in Urban Villages in Guangzhou, China

“…“Double carbon” is proposed as a goal [ 2 ]. Researchers are paying increasing attention to the relevance of carbon emissions and household elements, and they have proposed many macro and micro policies to achieve carbon emission reduction [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. However, China’s long-term dual structure has caused urban residents to have different production and lifestyles than rural residents, and their energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions characteristics also differ [ 6 ].…”