Environmental responsibilities embodied in consumption behavior: A comparison between urban and rural residents in China

Abstract

The environmental impacts of consumption behavior are not evenly distributed across different groups. Here, we develop an analytical framework by integrating input–output analysis, Lorenz curves drawing, spatial disequilibrium decomposition, and geographic transfer identification, enabling quantify the disparities in environmental responsibilities between urban and rural residents’ consumption behaviors. This framework is applied to China, the most populous country globally, for case study integrating three key dimensions: water consumption, fossil energy usage, and carbon emissions. The water resource, energy, and climate responsibilities associated with the urban residents’ consumption behavior were 2.68–2.92, 3.08–3.40, and 3.12–3.46 times that of rural residents in the three investigable years. Rural per capita consumption environmental footprints were less than half of urban residents. Provinces representing 20% of China’s urban and rural population generate 27%–36% of the country’s blue water, fossil energy, and carbon footprints. The spatial disequilibrium of residents’ consumption environmental responsibilities is significant but shows a weakening trend. Coastal developed regions tend to be net inflow areas of embodied water, fossil energy, and carbon dioxide, transferring embodied environmental pressures to inland regions. A progressive consumption footprint tax policy that considers contribution to economic growth is a potential approach for redistributing the consumption responsibilities between urban and rural residents.