Abstract

In 2020, China reaches 13.5 percent of the population aged 65 years and over (the elderly, 11.1% of urban population and 17.7% of rural population). Current studies generally demonstrate the negative effect of population aging on economic growth and structural changes in consumption expenditure between the youth and the elderly. With the issues of climate change standing out, the relationship between the aging and climate change (carbon emissions) is largely concerned and should be explored further. In this study, we choose 31 regions of China, combine the micro-level household survey data and multi-regional input-output model, quantify carbon emissions of different regions driven by household consumption expenditure by categories and ages, and investigate whether the aging process in China accelerates or curb carbon emissions produce. We find that (1) during 2005-2015, the percentages of the elderly in rural are larger than those in urban, while the growth rates are opposite. (2) The aging process in rural speeds up carbon emissions compared with the all-age growth rates of carbon footprint, while carbon emissions per capita in urban is generally two to three times as much as those in rural. (3) Carbon emissions per capita of the elderly is lower than the average of all-ages which evidences that the aging process in China contributes to carbon mitigation. Then, we could focus on Housing and Food to release the potential of carbon reduction under the background of population aging.