Carbon taxation and related vulnerability of Spanish urban and rural households in a regional level

Consumer decisions are essential in reducing CO2 emissions released by human activities. Climate policies aimed at reducing consumers carbon footprint require societal embrace and leaving no one behind; however, they often negatively affect low-income families and rural households with limited acces...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Sánchez Serrano, Marina, Zafrilla Rodríguez, Jorge Enrique, Ortiz Moreno, Mateo Felipe, Arce González, Guadalupe
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Fecha de publicación:2024
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha
Repositorio:RUIdeRA. Repositorio Institucional de la UCLM
OAI Identifier:oai:ruidera.uclm.es:10578/43153
Acceso en línea:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rspp.2024.100123
https://hdl.handle.net/10578/43153
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Carbon taxation
Expenditure levels
Households heterogeneity
Multiregional input-output model
Products' carbon footprint
Urban-rural households
Descripción
Sumario:Consumer decisions are essential in reducing CO2 emissions released by human activities. Climate policies aimed at reducing consumers carbon footprint require societal embrace and leaving no one behind; however, they often negatively affect low-income families and rural households with limited access to low-carbon consumption choices. In this paper, we estimate households carbon footprint in Castilla-La Mancha (Spain) by urban-rural location and expenditure attributes and simulate the impacts of a carbon tax on the disposable income of different types of households. A novel multiregional input-output model is proposed to assign global carbon footprints to products (instead of industries), leading us to identify the main driving goods in the carbon footprint of each type of household, evaluating the households vulnerability after carbon taxation. Our findings suggest that high-spending households would face the taxation strongest effects on car fuels and transport services, as they would have an impact of 2 % of their total expenditure by the taxation on these products, while this effect in lower-income households would be 0,75 %. A tax on basic housing services (electricity and heating) would have a regressive impact, undermining the consumption level of vulnerable households. They would be affected by 2,5 %, while higher income households would spend between 1 and 1,5 % of their total expenditure on paying the carbon tax on this product. This heterogeneity across households leads us to recommend taxes and compensation mechanisms charged on adequate products to reduce the carbon footprint of households while avoiding the regressivity of climate policies and reducing urban-rural inequalities.