Is There an Environmental Kuznets Curve for Food-Related Carbon Emissions? Evidence from China

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Rising incomes worldwide are reshaping dietary patterns and intensifying concern about the carbon impacts of household food consumption. This study examines how economic development influences food-related carbon emissions in China, with a focus on household food consumption behavior and dietary change. METHODS: Using longitudinal household data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey covering 2004-2011, we apply a panel threshold regression model to identify nonlinear income effects on food-related carbon emissions. RESULTS: is 0.243. Income growth significantly increases the consumption of greenhouse-gas-intensive foods and associated emissions among low-income households, whereas food consumption patterns among high-income households are comparatively more stable within the sample period. CONCLUSIONS: These findings indicate that rising income can intensify food-related carbon pressure during China's dietary transition, particularly through dietary upgrading among low-income households, but they do not provide direct evidence that household food emissions will stabilize automatically over time.