Water, air pollution and carbon footprints of conspicuous/luxury consumption in India

Bhar, S., Lele, S., Min, J. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0020-1174, & Rao, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1888-5292 (2024). Water, air pollution and carbon footprints of conspicuous/luxury consumption in India. Ecological Economics 218 e108104. 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2024.108104.

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Abstract

The literature on the environmental impacts of household consumption in India focuses on carbon and ecological footprints of income groups. This article connects conspicuous/luxury (C/L) consumption in India to its local, regional and global environmental impacts. We evaluate carbon dioxide (CO2), water, and particulate matter (PM2.5) footprints of consumption disaggregated into food-basic, nonfood-basic, and C/L consumption across expenditure deciles. We find that all three footprints rise, but at different rates, with increasing expenditure. Notably, CO2 and PM2.5 intensities of C/L consumption increase with income, unlike all other intensities of consumption. However, in all three footprints, there is a disproportionate rise in the top decile, which is driven by C/L consumption expenditure more than the pollution intensity of C/L consumption. These results imply that demand reduction measures in C/L consumption could have broad-based and deep environmental benefits, while pollutant-specific mitigation policies may face trade-offs with other environmental impacts. There is a need for further research on connecting local and regional environmental footprints with the actual impacts, to better understand the relationships between conspicuous/luxury consumption and multi-dimensional environmental impacts in developing countries context.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Air pollution footprint; Carbon footprint; Conspicuous/luxury consumption; India; Luxury consumption; MRIO; Water footprint
Research Programs:	Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) > Sustainable Service Systems (S3) Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) > Transformative Institutional and Social Solutions (TISS)
Depositing User:	Luke Kirwan
Date Deposited:	23 Jan 2024 13:36
Last Modified:	23 Jan 2024 13:36
URI:	https://iiasa-9.eprints-hosting.org/19429

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