Evolution of urban household indirect carbon emission responsibility from an inter-sectoral perspective: A case study of Guangdong, China

Abstract Reduction of urban household indirect carbon emissions (UHICE) is important for climate change mitigation. Uncovering the evolution of UHICE from an inter-sectoral perspective helps clarify responsibilities among different sectors and improves our understanding of the mechanisms by which inter-sectoral linkages drive UHICE. In this study, an environmentally extended input-output analysis was used to examine Guangdong Province’s sectoral UHICE responsibilities during 2002–2012. We investigated the evolution of key sectors and related paths using multi-temporal inter-sectoral linkage analysis and structural path analysis. Our analyses found that: (1) sectoral UHICE exhibited significant disparities, and the electricity and steam production and supply (S73), food and beverage services (S88), manufacture of metal products (S52), telecommunication and other information transmission services (S84), and transport via road (S78) sectors were the main UHICE sources; (2) from the evolution of sectors’ forward and/or backward linkages, we determined 13 key sectors and 12 potential key sectors in UHICE reduction; (3) optimizing 20 key sectors’ self-demand structures and improving the production efficiency in electricity and steam production and supply (S73) significantly affects UHICE reductions; and (4) except for a path’s length and heterogeneity, the change of a path’s UHICE contributions also determines its reduction management priority.