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Who Pollutes? A Household-Level Database of America’s Greenhouse Gas Footprint - Working Paper 381

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  • Kevin Ummel

Abstract

This paper describes the creation of a database providing estimated greenhouse gas (GHG) footprints for 6 million US households over the period 2008-2012. The database allows analysis of footprints for 52 types of consumption (e.g. electricity, gasoline, apparel, beef, air travel, etc.) within and across geographic regions as small as individual census tracts. Potential research applications with respect to carbon pricing and tax policy are discussed. Preliminary analysis reveals: The top 10% of US polluters are responsible for 25% of the country’s GHG footprint. The least-polluting 40% of the population accounts for only 20% of the total. The average GHG footprint of individuals in the top 2% of the income distribution is more than four times that of those in the bottom quintile. The highest GHG footprints are found in America’s suburbs, where relatively inefficient housing and transport converge with higher incomes. Rural areas exhibit moderate GHG footprints. High-density urban areas generally exhibit the lowest GHG footprints, but location-specific results are highly dependent on income. Residents of Republican-held congressional districts have slightly higher average GHG footprints than those in Democratic districts – but the difference is small (21.8 tCO2e/person/year in Republican districts; 20.6 in Democratic). There is little relationship between the strength of a district’s party affiliation and average GHG footprint.

Suggested Citation

  • Kevin Ummel, 2014. "Who Pollutes? A Household-Level Database of America’s Greenhouse Gas Footprint - Working Paper 381," Working Papers 381, Center for Global Development.
    • Handle: RePEc:cgd:wpaper:381
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Lucas Chancel & Thomas Piketty, 2015. "Carbon and inequality: From Kyoto to Paris Trends in the global inequality of carbon emissions (1998-2013) & prospects for an equitable adaptation fund World Inequality Lab," PSE Working Papers halshs-02655266, HAL.
    2. Pottier, Antonin & Combet, Emmanuel & Cayla, Jean-Michel & de Lauretis, Simona & Nadaud, Franck, 2021. "Who emits CO2 ? Landscape of ecological inequalities in France from a critical perspective," FEEM Working Papers 311053, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    3. Pottier, Antonin, 2022. "Expenditure elasticity and income elasticity of GHG emissions: A survey of literature on household carbon footprint," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    4. Robert Habans & Matthew Thomas Clement & Andrew Pattison, 2019. "Carbon emissions and climate policy support by local governments in California: a qualitative comparative analysis at the county level," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 9(3), pages 255-269, September.
    5. Andrew Pattison & Mathew Thomas Clement & Robert Habans, 2022. "The uneven weight of carbon on policy: towards a framework for understanding how greenhouse gas inventories can inform equitable climate policy design," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 12(1), pages 81-90, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    air pollution; greenhouse gases; climate change; environment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q53 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Air Pollution; Water Pollution; Noise; Hazardous Waste; Solid Waste; Recycling
    • Q57 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Ecological Economics

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