Correlating household travel carbon emissions, travel behavior and land use: Case study of Wuhan, China

Abstract

Domesticity contributes a significant portion to the amount of total CO2 emissions. Understanding the influence factors of household travel carbon emissions helps develop effective policy to minimize carbon emissions. This paper presents an empirical study of household travel carbon emissions with 1194 samples in Wuhan, China. Besides looking at the household socioeconomic characteristics, the study pays attention to the role of the spatial context in household living and travel and how it affects travel emission outcomes. A regression analysis shows urban spatial structure and land use context offer additional explanatory power to variation of travel carbon emissions under the effects of socio-economic factors controlled. Emission hot spots and high-emission households most likely appear in newly developed suburban areas. The paper concludes by suggesting both place-based and people-based policies to achieve the goal of reducing carbon emissions.