Spatial variation in household consumption-based carbon emission inventories for 1200 Japanese cities

Abstract

Given that national pledges are likely insufficient to meet Paris greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets (Fawcett et al 2015 Science 350), increasingly actors at the city and state level are looking for options on how local government can contribute to reducing GHG emissions. For a typical city only one third to half of their carbon footprint (CF) is emitted within the jurisdiction, while the majority is embodied in goods and services flowing into the city. To support well-informed mitigation efforts, administrators need robust inventories of both direct emissions as well as the supply chain emissions. Here we construct household CF inventories for 1172 Japanese cities using detailed consumer expenditure data and a Japanese domestic multi-regional input-output (MRIO) model. We identify the consumption activities which city policymakers can target to reduce CF. We observe a strong concentration of household CF in a few cities in Japan: 40% of the total Japanese CF is driven by 143 cities. Understanding a city's consumption-based CF of households in addition to its direct emissions exposes additional policy options for each citizen to contribute to achieving national goals.