ABSTRACT

Climate change threatens public health, the environment, agriculture, and the economy. The 13th Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) explicitly focuses on combating climate change and its impacts by reducing global carbon emissions. Households are the most significant economic agents responsible for most carbon emissions. This study aims to i) estimate the direct and indirect carbon footprints of household consumption and determinants in Pakistan, ii) analyze fuel and food consumption and substitution dynamics in   Pakistan, iii) test the existence of EKC at the household level, and iv) propose mitigation strategies for households.This study used the 2015-16 and 2018-19 rounds of Pakistan’s Household Integrated Economic Survey (HIES). The study used the (IPCC) reference method to estimate carbon emissions from cooking fuels, electricity and household consumption. The study used Heckman’s two-stage selection model to evaluate the determinants of household carbon emissions. The study results revealed that households extensively used dung cake and firewood as cooking fuels in four provinces of Pakistan; therefore, these fuels mainly contribute to household carbon emissions. The analysis of food emissions shows that mutton has the most significant emissions among animal-based products, and rice emits the largest emissions among cereals. On the other hand, fruits and leafy veggies are among the lowest emitters. The Heckman model results demonstrated that household head characteristics, age, marital status, education, employment, and geographic distributions are highly associated with household energy consumption expenditures and their emissions. The study results indicate that household cooking emissions increase with the expenditure, but the results do not follow the inverted shape path of traditional EKC, which indicates that the economic condition of the household has not reached the position to adopt clean cooking fuels, which would lead to reduced emissions right now it is in the position of increased trajectory and not reached its inflexion point. The study results reveal that cooking fuels exhibit their price elasticity below unity, indicating a less than proportionate decrease in demand with an increase in prices. Additionaly, firewood and LPG, firewood and dungcake demonstrate substitution effects as evidenced by their respective cross-price elasticities. The study examines the environmental impact of food consumption patterns, highlighting high-emission foods like mutton, rice, and milk. We analyze how price elasticities influence consumer behavior, emphasizing the importance of promoting sustainable dietary choices. Integrating findings with existing literature, we propose policy implications to encourage eco-friendly food consumption, including targeting high-emission foods, understanding consumer responses to price changes, and implementing subsidies and carbon pricing to foster sustainable food systems. The study results reveal that cereal pulses and vegetables are close substitutes. The study contributes to understanding household cooking fuel, energy access and food consumption in Pakistan, shedding light on critical socio-economic factors that influence access disparities.The study concludes that policies should be designed by mainly focusing on improved technologies to make clean cooking stoves, investing in regional infrastructure, education and self-awareness programs to bridge the energy access gap and promoting clean and sustainable energy throughout Pakistan.