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• Carbon emissions from energy consumption of 282 prefecture-level cities in China were calculated. • A new method for calculating carbon emission factors for electricity is proposed. • Extending the Atkinson Index to the application of Carbon Fairness. • Measured the inequality and fairness indicators of carbon emissions from energy consumption at the prefecture-level city level in China. This paper focuses on the conceptualization and quantification of carbon emission inequality and fairness from energy consumption. In order to more accurately measure the carbon emissions generated by electricity consumption in each city, we firstly propose a new method for calculating the carbon emission factor for electricity, and calculates the carbon emissions from energy consumption in 282 prefecture-level cities in China from 2003 to 2019. Through the application of the Theil-Kaya decomposition mechanism and the improved Atkinson index, we conducted an in-depth study of the carbon emission inequality and fairness indicators from energy consumption. The results show that (1) Although China's overall inequality has declined, it remains significant in the western region, with its inequality indicator fluctuating from 0.548 in 2003 to 0.683 in 2019.(2) The decomposition of the drivers of inequality indicators shows that the contribution of GDP per capita to inequality is increasingly being replaced by energy intensity and the energy carbon emission factor, with energy intensity emerging as the main driver, contributing more than 40% to inequality in 2019, both overall and in the three regions.(3) The results for the fairness indicator, on the other hand, show a certain degree of divergence. Further Dynamic Time Warping fitting analysis shows that regardless of how the public's sensitivity to carbon emissions varies, the change trends of the fairness and inequality indicators for carbon emissions in the eastern region show a high degree of convergence, even in the two most extreme cases. The fit is poorest in the western region, but improves significantly if public's sensitivity to carbon emissions increases. (4)To sum up, some policies that are consistent with the context of the times, such as the East-West regional counterparts and the construction of a new type of power system, are worthy of priority consideration by the Government. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The direct rebound effect offsets part of energy savings brought about by energy efficiency, causing academics and governments to re-examine the relationship between energy efficiency and conservation. Although suppressing the rebound effect contributes to energy conservation, how to implement it is debatable. This paper puts forward a framework to character the direct rebound effect, and develops non-linear models to explore the impacts of urbanization on the direct rebound effect based on a panel dataset of 30 Chinese provinces. The results show that, first, the magnitude of the direct rebound effect is much smaller in urban areas than that in rural areas. Second, urbanization could restrain the direct rebound effect in urban areas, where employment and environmental consciousness play important roles while the impact of agglomeration is relatively weak. The impacts of urbanization on direct rebound effect are not substantial in rural areas. In addition, our findings reject the saturation effect caused by income. Income promotes the direct rebound effect in rural areas while it could not restrain the direct rebound effect in urban areas. Therefore, the reason that the average direct rebound effect tends to decline with income growth seems to be the urbanization rather than the saturation effect. • This paper puts forward a framework to character the RE and explore its evolution. • A new urbanization that looks at its quality rather than its growth is conducted in this paper. • The relationship between income and the RE is re-examined and it has the urban-rural heterogeneity. • The RE of urban areas decreases with urbanization mainly in the employment and environment dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As an important path to realizing carbon neutrality in China, digital development may also lead to the growth and rebound of energy demand. Investigation of digital rebound effect is important to evaluate whether digital development can effectively conserve energy. Thus, this paper examines the impact of digital development on electricity consumption and its heterogeneity among Chinese cities, and further evaluates the sizes of energy rebound effect triggered by digital development. The results show that, first, electricity consumption in Chinese 285 cities increases by 7%–20% due to digital development, and this positive influence tends to increase with the increase in electricity consumption. Second, in the eastern, high-income, and high-tertiary industry share regions, digital development has a greater role in promoting electricity consumption. Third, the digital development of Chinese cities induces the rebound effect of electricity consumption, and even induces the backfire effect in the early stages of digital development. Finally, the energy rebound effect tended to decrease over time, with a partial rebound in electricity consumption, and the minimum rebound effect was 22%. The results highlight the necessary attention on digital rebound effect, and the importance of low-carbon digital development. • Electricity consumption increased 7%–20% due to digital development in China • The positive influence tends to increase with the increase in electricity consumption • Digital development in Chinese cities leads to energy rebound effect • The energy rebound effect tended to decrease over time, with a partial rebound [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Though improving energy efficiency is an important approach to decrease the energy consumption, the rebound effect caused by technology progress negatively affects the effectiveness of energy efficiency policies. This paper empirically investigates direct rebound effect of urban residential electricity use in China. Using China's 30 provincial government panel data from1996 to 2010, we build a co-integration equation and a panel error correction model to analyze the direct rebound effect. The results indicate that an obvious rebound effect in the Chinese urban residential electricity consumption does exist. Specifically, the long-term rebound effect is 0.74, while the short-term rebound effect is 0.72. Therefore, the rebound effect significantly impairs functions of energy efficiency policies. For this reason, Chinese government should take the rebound effect into consideration when formulating energy policies. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]