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High Consumption in South Yorkshire

Amy Grace, Doctoral Researcher

�High Consumers Team: Professor Aimee Ambrose, Dr Steve Parkes, Dr Anna Hawkins, Dr Alvaro Castano Garcia, Dave Leather, Dr Yael Arbell, Dawn Witherley, Mia Rafalowicz-Campbell,

�Centre for Regional, Economic and Social Research, Sheffield Hallam University and South Yorkshire Sustainability Centre.

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Understanding High Consumption

To address high consumption first step is understanding it:

Spatial consumption distribution at the Lower Super output Area (LSOA) level

Drawing on secondary data:

Domestic energy: gas and electricity usage (BEIS, 2021)
Emissions from flights per capita (Place-based Carbon Calculator, 2020)
Distance travelled to work (Census, 2021)
General measure of consumption inc food, goods and services (Place-based Carbon Calculator, 2020)

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LSOA’s show similar spatially distributed footprints across consumption categories.

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High Consumption in South Yorkshire

Stark differences when comparing high/low consumption

Highest consuming LSOA’s have high consumption across numerous categories

Income and rural/urban differences

3x the amount of gas use between the highest and the lowest consumers
10x the emissions from flights
1.5x from electricity

Contains data from: ONS Census for England and Wales (2021), Place-Based Carbon Calculator (2022) and Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (2021). Contains OS data © Crown copyright and databased right 2024.

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Tackling Problematic Consumption

Adapted from Vadovics et al., 2023 Preferences, Barriers and Enablers of 1.5° Lifestyles: Findings from Citizen Thinking Labs in Five EU Countries

Individual: behaviour change preferences (Vadovics et al, 2023)

Policy - fiscal policies absorbed by wealthy (Garcia et al 2021)

- sufficiency policies not widely adopted (Zell-Ziegler et al, 2021)

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Can households make a difference?

UK emissions reduction – territorial emissions 49% vs UK’s carbon footprint 15% (UK Gov, 2024)

Household consumption accounts for over 60% of total emissions (Ivanova et al, 2016)

In the UK, top 25% income households account for nearly 40% of UK consumption-based emissions. (Buchs & Schnepf, 2013)

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High Consumption: exploring drivers and lock-ins

High consumers have the greatest opportunity to reduce consumption without impacting wellbeing, however, are rarely the focus of research or policy.

Garcia et al., 2021

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References

BÜCHS, M. and SCHNEPF, S.V., 2013. Who emits most? Associations between socio-economic factors and UK households' home energy, transport, indirect and total CO2 emissions. Ecological Economics, 90, pp. 114-123.

Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs, May 2024, Carbon Footprint for the UK and England to 2021

Retrieved from https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uks-carbon-footprint/carbon-footprint-for-the-uk-and-england-to-2019#greenhouse-gas-emissions-associated-with-consumption

Garcia, A.C., Ambrose, A., Hawkins, A. and Parkes, S., 2021. High consumption, an unsustainable habit that needs more attention. Energy Research & Social Science, 80, p.102241.

Ivanova, Diana, et al. "Environmental impact assessment of household consumption." Journal of Industrial Ecology 20.3 (2016): 526-536.

Vadovics, E., Richter, J.L., & Tornow, M., (2023). Preferences, Barriers and Enablers of 1.5° Lifestyles: Findings from Citizen Thinking Labs in Five EU Countries. SCORAI Conference Wageningen, Netherlands July 2023

Zell-Ziegler, C., Thema, J., Best, B., Wiese, F., Lage, J., Schmidt, A., ... & Stagl, S. (2021). Enough? The role of sufficiency in European energy and climate plans. Energy Policy, 157, 112483.