In an effort to better understand the interactions between economic activity and the environment, this report computes the CO2 emissions caused by French domestic demand in 2005, taking into account both the national productive system as well as any activities abroad, such as imports. The aggregate figure calculated amounts to just over 550 million tonnes (9 tonnes per year per inhabitant). This number is then broken down to show that 75 percent of these emissions are produced by household consumption expenditure, mainly on housing, transport, and food; 10 percent are produced by general government consumer expenditure; and 15 percent by investment.
The report also provides some insight into household-level emissions patterns relative to the standard of living and household size. Specifically, it finds that the quantity of CO2 generated by household consumption clearly rises with the standard of living, as the wealthiest 20 percent of households generate 29 percent of CO2 emissions via their purchases, while the most modest 20 percent only produce 11 percent of CO2 emissions. However, due to the differences in structure of their consumption baskets, the CO2 content per Euro spent is lower on average for a well-off household than for a modest one. As for household size, bearing in mind the economies of scale in a household, the quantity of CO2 emitted per person decreases on average with the household size. One inhabitant is calculated to generate emissions of 6.4 tonnes of CO2 per year through their consumption, but this figure rises to 8.6 tonnes for people in a single household, and only amounts to 4.1 tonnes for people living in a large family.