Spain | The Spanish Households’ Carbon Footprint Inequality in High Definition & Real Time

Summary

We analyze the distribution of greenhouse gas emissions resulting from the consumption of Spanish households, considering spending levels, age, gender, and different types of goods and services. Our approach combines official data, the Input-Output methodology and BBVA data.

Key points

• Key points:
• A notable inequality exists in CO2 emissions, which is closely aligned with consumption but tends to be lower compared to income. The primary contributor to emissions inequality is the higher consumption of transport among affluent individuals. In contrast, housing CO2 emissions by households (including shelter services and energy utilities) demonstrates a more balanced distribution, with relatively higher consumption and GHG emissions utilization observed in the lower percentiles of consumption.
• There is also inequality in CO2 emissions when examined through the lenses of age and gender. In general, emissions tend to exhibit an inverted "U" pattern with respect to age, with males exhibiting higher levels of pollution compared to females.
• The high granularity of the distributional emission data opens the door to the design of smarter policies (i.e addressed where more needed and/or more effective).
• The approach also delivers Consumption emissions in real time. The data from 2022 and 2023 shows that the adjustment effect by Covid-19 in 2020 is already over.
• There were important divergences during Covid-19: while CO2 emissions from activities affected by lockdowns (i.e transport) adjusted rapidly, other emissions as the ones coming from Food proved to be more resilient.

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