Sector linkages and driving forces of Chinese household CO2 emissions based on semi-closed input–output model

For decades, the rapid urbanization and economic development in China inevitably lead to the increase of household energy demand and CO2 emissions. Existing studies regard the household sector as an exogenous sector unrelated to production, ignoring that the wages, goods, and services provided by production sectors will affect the consumption of the household sector. This paper analyzes the impact of the household sector on production sectors and the total CO2 emissions by establishing a semi-closed environmentally extended input–output model in China from 2007 to 2017. Through the calculation of index of the power of dispersion and index of sensitivity of dispersion, the index of sensitivity of dispersion of household is large, and household has push to several sectors’ CO2 emissions. Furthermore, we explore the drivers of China’s household CO2 emissions using structural decomposition analysis and claim that consumption per capita and urbanization rate are the dominant factors driving household CO2 emissions, while carbon intensity and economic structure are the main factors inhibiting household CO2 emissions. Our research shows a clear picture of sector linkages and driving forces of household CO2 emissions, providing strong evidence for the development of China’s household CO2 reduction policies.