Spatiotemporal variation and determinants of carbon emissions generated by household private car

Abstract Given the large accumulation of Greenhouse Gas emissions released by household, individual behaviors play a vital role in decarbonization measurement. Among different residents’ behaviors, using private car is an essential source of household carbon emission. Therefore, deepening the understanding about its variation and determinants is of great importance for decarbonizing individual behaviors. Taking Japan as example, this study firstly evaluates the emissions generated by household private car from 1990 to 2016. Then, by using econometric model, cluster and spatial autocorrelation analysis, both spatiotemporal trend and emissions determinants are given out. Results indicate that although the private car emissions across the whole extent of Japan is declining, depopulation still contributes to increasing emissions in some prefectures. Last, given the future depopulation trend, target-specific decarbonization policy is suggested to take demographic features as the first consideration.