An Analysis Of Household Carbon Emissions And Influencing Factors Of Northwest China From 1995 To 2012

Global warming has become a serious environmental problem that current mankind is facing with. At present, the international community has generally acknowledged that greenhouse gas produced by human activity especially the CO2 is the main cause of global warming. With the development of economic society, as well as the speeding up of urbanization and the improvement of people’s living standard, the household carbon emissions is continuing to increase. Related studies have shown that, the change of households and individual consumption behavior can help to reduce carbon emissions and prompt carbon structure more reasonable, that is to say household carbon emissions has a huge potential to reduce emissions. Analyzing the influence factors of carbon emissions, by limiting one or certain factors, carbon emissions can be reduced effectively. Using statistical data, this paper evaluated the basic situation of household carbon emissions of northwest China (Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang) from 1995 to 2012, based on STIRPAT extension model, combined with ridge regression fitting, this paper empirically studies the influence factors of household carbon emissions of northwest district.This paper focus on the following aspects:(1) The basic situation of household carbon emissions of northwest China from 1995 to 2012 has been evaluated. From the aspects of household carbon emissions, per capita household carbon emissions, direct and indirect household carbon emissions, the structure of household carbon emissions, this paper analysed the household carbon emissions of northwest district and the five northwestern provinces. The evaluation results show that, from 1995 to 2012, the household carbon emissions of northwest district increased by 2.82 times, per capita carbon emissions increased by 2.36 times; household carbon emissions gap between northwestern provinces is always large, but the per capita gap has gradually decreased; the proportion of indirect carbon emissions continues to rise, per capita indirect carbon emissions is much higher than per capita direct carbon emissions; the main emphasis of household carbon emissions turn from coal to power and food.(2)Based on STIRPAT extension model, this paper empirically studies the influencing factors of household carbon emissions of northwest district. The results show that, the influencing factors of household carbon emissions of northwest district from most important to least are as follows, per capita GDP(20.26%), household carbon emission intensity(17.38%), per capita consumption expenditure(11.51%), urbanization rate(10.75%), household size(-10.18%), the proportion of working-age population(9.61%), the proportion of college degree or above population(9.43%), total population(5.36%). Among them, the household size has negative impact on household carbon emissions.(3)Analyzing the influencing factors of household carbon emissions of the five northwestern provinces from 1995 to 2012, we found that, per capita GDP(20.62%), household carbon emission intensity(17.35%), per capita consumption expenditure(12.23%), these three factors are the main factors influencing Shaanxi household carbon emissions; per capita GDP(18.22%), household size(-15.13%), household carbon emission intensity(14.9%), these three factors are the main factors influencing Gansu household carbon emissions; household carbon emission intensity(18.47%), urbanization rate(14.86%), per capita consumption expenditure(12.83%), these three factors are the main factors influencing Qinghai household carbon emissions; per capita GDP(17.06%), per capita consumption expenditure(12.92%), the proportion of working-age population(12.55%), these three factors are the main factors influencing Ningxia household carbon emissions; household carbon emission intensity(28.25%), per capita GDP(16.63%), per capita consumption expenditure(14.37%), these three factors are the main factors influencing Xinjiang household carbon emissions.