Utilization of the household carbon footprint assessment for equitable policy formulation in Greece.

Abstract

This thesis research aims to address the literature gap regarding the utilization of the household carbon footprint assessment for the formulation of equitable climate policies to assist the efforts for CO2 reduction in a fair manner. To achieve this, the carbon footprint of Greek households is assessed, while certain socio-economic, demographic, and regional factors are integrated to classify the emissions across different household groups and demonstrate the existing disparities between them. The quantification of household emissions was conducted using the Environmentally Extended Multi Regional Input-Output (EE-MRIO) method alongside household expenditure data to obtain insights into household consumption habits. The study provides valuable findings into the consumption patterns of Greek households, classified by their monthly income, size, and location, across many COICOP categories. The analysis reveals the primary role of income in driving household emissions and shows that wealthy households emit disproportionally more than low-income ones. This is attributed to the high consumption habits of wealthy households in transport, leisure, and luxury goods and services, while the emissions of low-income households are mainly associated with basic necessities such as water, electricity, and food. The size of the households influences the emissions per household, as it is shown that emissions drop with an increase in the number of members due to the resource-sharing effect, especially in the water and electricity category. Urban households exhibit overall more than rural households, due to higher consumption in often more carbon-intensive goods and services, whereas in rural households, private transportation and carbon-intensive means of heating contribute significantly to their emissions profile. Moreover, it was found that the majority of the emissions in the country result from households built between 1961-2000 which display poor energy efficiency. Given these findings, five policy measures were proposed to reduce household CO2 emissions in Greece, addressing the key emitting categories and the disparities displayed to ensure equitable outcomes. These policy measures include energy efficiency retrofits, transportation reforms, dietary interventions, and renewable energy adoption. The potential reduction of the CO2 emissions resulting from some policies was also evaluated.