The impacts of individual behavior on household daily travel carbon emissions in Beijing, China

Recently, the topic of sustainable transport has attracted much scholarly and practical attention. However, few studies have examined the driving forces for household transportation emissions from the perspective of individual behavior. On the basis of daily activity survey conducted in Beijing from 2000 to 2011, this study examines the impacts of individual travel behavior on carbon emissions from urban transport. It first investigates the changes in the inhabitant travel characteristics and carbon emissions, and then discusses the effects of population, per capita economic activity, transportation intensity, transportation mode share, vehicle-use intensity and emission coefficient on carbon emissions based on decomposition analysis. Results shows that: (1) carbon emissions due to urban traffic has increased from 2.99 Mt in 2000 to 16.76 Mt in 2011, following an annual growth rate of 16.95%; (2) the vehicle-use intensity effect, per capita disposable income effect and population effect are found to be the main drivers that increase household daily travel carbon emissions; and (3) both transportation intensity and emission coefficient have significant effects on the reduction of carbon emissions. However, the transportation mode share effect plays a very minor role over the study period.