{
  "abstract": "Household consumption is a major driver of global carbon and air-pollutant emissions. As living standards rise, everyday routines become entrenched and reduce the responsiveness of demand to mitigation policies. Consumption-based accounting has traced these burdens through supply chains, yet the scale of emissions that remain locked in by behavioral inertia has stayed poorly quantified. Here we show that locked-in emissions of carbon and air pollutants account for nearly 84% of total household-driven emissions of CO 2 , PM 2.5 , NO x , and SO 2 across China, far exceeding the contribution of net consumption growth. Food exhibits the highest locked-in share (approximately 97%), followed by residential expenditure (84–86%). Per-capita habit-locked emissions peak in East and North China, with 32–53% of these emissions originating in the production systems of Nei Mongol and Shandong. Scenario analysis to 2035 reveals that under business-as-usual scenario, habit-locked CO 2 emissions peak around 2030, while habit-locked air-pollutant emissions decline, whereas the deepest and most balanced reductions, 1285 Mt CO 2 together with 218 kt PM 2.5 , 729 kt SO 2 , and 126 kt NO x , occur only when carbon-neutrality-oriented policies are paired with attenuated consumption inertia. These findings demonstrate that efficient demand-side synergistic mitigation in China requires systematic substitution of habit-locked carbon and air-pollutant emissions with lower-emission, affordable alternatives.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, China; Institute of Carbon Neutrality and Green Development (CNGD), Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, 510275, China",
    "Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom",
    "Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Department of Earth System Science, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China",
    "Guangdong-Hongkong-Macau Joint Laboratory of Collaborative Innovation for Environmental Quality, College of Environment and Climate, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 511486, China"
  ],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Zhihui Zhang"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        1
      ],
      "name": "Huihui Long"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        2
      ],
      "name": "Dan Tong"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        3
      ],
      "name": "Xuemei Wang"
    },
    {
      "name": "Shaoqing Chen"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cr81t3yem7pe9.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1016/j.ese.2026.100757",
  "fulltext_url": "http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266649842600102X",
  "id": "cr81t3yem7pe9",
  "issns": [
    "2666-4984"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100757",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "journal",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "lcc",
      "GE1-350"
    ],
    [
      "lcc",
      "TD1-1066"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "2305|Environmental Impact and Sustainability"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7204523527",
  "pdf_url": "https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266649842600102X/pdf",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-01",
  "publisher": "Elsevier",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cr81t3yem7pe9.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T13:44:37Z",
      "native_id": "d6e9978eec914fc0bb9ff89465be40c8",
      "source": "doaj",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ese.2026.100757"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "openalex:2305|Environmental Impact and Sustainability",
      "subfield": "environmental-science"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Habit-locked-in carbon-air-pollutant emissions dominate China's household footprints",
  "title_text": "Habit-locked-in carbon-air-pollutant emissions dominate China's household footprints",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T13:44:37Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/cr81t3yem7pe9",
  "venue": "Environmental Science and Ecotechnology",
  "versions": []
}