Carbon inequality in residential buildings: Evidence from 321 Chinese cities

All human beings contribute to climate change; however, their contributions are not equal. Using China as an example, the core objective of this study is to explore the city-level carbon inequality of residential buildings from 2015 to 2020 combined Theil index and Gini coefficient. The outcomes indicate that: (1) Total residential buildings' carbon emissions in 321 Chinese cities increased from 987.81 million tons (Mt) in 2015 to 1161.70 Mt. in 2020; the leading five cities that own the largest carbon emissions are Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Shenyang, and Harbin in 2020. (2) Among eight major economic zones of China, the highest residential buildings' carbon emission per capita and residents' disposable income per capita are the Northeast Economic Zone and Eastern Coastal Economic Zone, respectively. (3) Both the Theil index and Gini coefficient show that the overall carbon inequality is higher than income inequality; the Theil index decomposition indicates that city-level carbon inequality has declined; the key forces of carbon emission per capita and disposable income per capita inequality are inter-regional inequality (contribution rate: 55%-63%) and intra-regional inequality (contribution rate: 59%-63%), respectively. (4) Moreover, regarding income earners during 2015-2020 period, the top 10% of 321 cities occupy about 33% in the total national residential buildings' carbon emissions; the medium 40% of cities account for about 42% in total carbon emissions; in contrast, the bottom 50% of cities represent only about 25% of the total carbon emissions. These discoveries emphasize the necessity for the Chinese government to pay more attention to city-level residential building carbon emissions to track advances toward residents' sustainable lifestyles.