GHG emissions accounting for Xiamen City, China

Tao Lin, Yunjun Yu, Xuemei Bai, Ling Feng and Jin Wang have recently published an article in PLoS ONE entitled ‘Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting of Urban Residential Consumption: A Household Survey Based Approach’.

They present a survey-based GHG emissions accounting methodology for urban residential consumption, and apply it in Xiamen City, a rapidly urbanising coastal city in southeast China. Based on this, the main influencing factors determining residential GHG emissions at the household and community scale are identified, and the typical profiles of low, medium and high GHG emission households and communities are identified. Housing area and household size are the two main factors determining GHG emissions from residential consumption at the household scale, while average housing area and building height are the main factors at the community scale. The results show a large disparity in GHG emissions profiles among different households, with high GHG emissions households emitting about five times more than low GHG emissions households. Emissions from high GHG emissions communities are about twice as high as from low GHG emissions communities. The findings can contribute to better tailored and targeted policies aimed at reducing household GHG emissions, and developing low GHG emissions residential communities in China.

The article is freely available for download from here.

Lin T, Yu Y, Bai X, Feng L, Wang J (2013) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Accounting of Urban Residential Consumption: A Household Survey Based Approach. PLoS ONE 8(2): e55642. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0055642

Thanks to Xuemei Bai for alerting us to this new publication.