The increase in Brazilian household income and its impact on CO2 emissions: Evidence for 2003 and 2009 from input-output tables

- We map the recent behavior of the Brazilian economy in terms of increased income.
- We evaluate the impacts of household consumption on CO2 emissions.
- The transportation sector has the greatest impact for all household income groups.
- Emissions from the food industry are more pronounced in the lower consumption classes.
- The results are partly due to the intensity of emissions and systemic effects.

In recent years, Brazil has experienced economic growth and a recovery of income that has had a positive impact on the consumption of goods. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of Brazilian household consumption on the CO2 emissions for 2003 and 2009 using input-output tables from the World Input-Output Database. We used a semi-closed model with eight household groups in order to apply the hypothetical extraction method in the consumption structure of each group. Further, we use the result from the hypothetical extraction to evaluate the impacts of the structure consumption of each household group in terms of CO2 emissions. We find that there is a trade-off between the households' greater satisfaction from consumption and the increasing setback in emissions from the restructuring and modification of the consumption basket. Thus, this study contributes to the research on emissions by mapping the recent behavior of the Brazilian economy in terms of increased income, changes in the consumption structure, and their impacts on emissions. The paper's aggregated results by income and consumption structure based on the intensity of the emissions and their systemic effects add to the discussions on less-polluting production processes, more conscious consumption of goods, and more rational uses of energy and transportation.