Embodied pollution in Spanish household consumption: a disaggregate analysis

In this paper we apply an environmentally extended input-output model to analyse a specific issue related to the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. The purpose is to study whether the consumption structure ofwealthier households has a positive effect on the reduction of environmental pressures. Combining information from different databases, we analysed the impact of the consumption of Spanish households in 2000 on atmospheric pollution. We considered nine gases: the six greenhouse gases (CO2, CH4, N2O, SF6, HFCs, and PFCs) and three other gases (SO2, NOx, and NH3). We classified households by quintiles of per capita expenditure and equivalent expenditure. We found that there was a positive and very high relationship between the level of expenditure and direct and indirect emissions generated by household consumption; however, the emission intensities tended to decrease with the expenditure level for the various atmospheric pollutants, with the exception of SF6, HFCs and PFCs.