Carbon footprint of urban areas: An analysis based on emission sources account model

The concept of carbon footprint (CF), as a fundamental quantization parameter of carbon emissions measurement, captures the interest of policy makers, businesses and consumers' attention. However, the lack of CF assessment model of urban areas makes it difficult to confirm or refute best practices and policies. This article presents an emission sources account (ESA) model, to analyze the CF of urban areas, which can help provide benchmarks and expand our understanding of carbon emissions. Based on the conception of carbon footprint and the precondition of human activity, this study analyzes the emission source of four accounts: energy consumption account, soil and crop account, livestock account and solid waste account. Four accounts are summed together for the total carbon footprints of urban area by following the standard IPCC emission inventory methods. Per capita CF and the CF of ten thousand Yuan GDP are also calculated to highlight the link between human activities and environmental consequences. Using the ESA model offers a clear mechanism to estimate the carbon footprint of urban areas, and it provides a different perspective of the drivers for carbon emissions at the city level. To contribute to the model verification, this article investigates the carbon footprint of Dongguan city from 1990 to 2010 through ESA model, which opens the way for a new set of comparisons among different cities, helping promote regional emission reduction policies.