A Study on Household Carbon Footprints(HCFs) using High-Resolution Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis(EEIOA) Model

Given that household consumption accounts for an estimated 58–72% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, effective consumption-based GHG mitigation strategies are critical, complementing traditional production-based efforts like renewable energy expansion and efficiency improvement. A prerequisite for such strategies is the quantitative assessment of household carbon footprints (HCFs). This study analyzed South Korea's HCFs for the year 2020 by utilizing a high-resolution Environmentally Extended Input-Output Analysis (EEIOA) model. The results indicate that the average household's HCF was 12.41 tCO2eq. in 2020. The direct and indirect emissions from energy use—specifically residential energy (6.41tCO2eq.) and transportation (2.77tCO2eq.)—constituted a dominant 73.9% of the total HCF. These findings underscore the necessity of a two-pronged approach for effective consumption-side abatement: (1) promoting household low-carbon consumption patterns and (2) rapidly transitioning the national power generation mix to renewable or carbon-free sources and decarbonizing hard-to-abate industries such as petrochemical industry and steel industry, closely tied to essential consumption categories.