Carbon-dioxide mitigation in the residential building sector: A household scale-based assessment

a. Changes of CO2 emission per household (CO2 intensity) in the Chinese residential building sector via decomposition analysis; b and c. Total and intensity values of CO2 mitigation in the residential building sector (2001–2016); d and e. CO2 mitigation per capita and CO2 mitigation per floor space in the residential building sector (2001–2016). [Display omitted] •Changes in CO2 intensity were decomposed via the Log-Mean Divisia Index approach.•Average CO2 mitigation intensity from 2001 to 2016 was 266.12 kgCO2·(household·year)−1.•CO2 mitigation of the residential building sector from 2001 to 2016 was 1816.99 MtCO2.•Ridge regression verified the robustness of the CO2 intensity decomposition results.•Energy-conservation and emission-mitigation strategy is the key to promoting CO2 mitigation. Carbon-dioxide mitigation in residential building sector (CMRBS) has become critical for China in achieving its emission mitigation goal in the “Post Paris” period with the growing demand for household energy service in residential buildings. This is the first paper to investigate the factors that can mitigate carbon-dioxide (CO2) intensity and further assess CMRBS in China based on a household scale via decomposition analysis. The core findings of this study reveal that: (1) Three types of housing economic indicators and the final emission factor significantly contributed to the decrease in CO2 intensity in the residential building sector. In addition, the CMRBS from 2001 to 2016 was 1816.99 MtCO2, and the average mitigation intensity during this period was 266.12 kgCO2·(household·year)−1. (2) Ridge regression indicated that the robustness of the decomposition approach was sufficient for achieving reliable results for the decomposition analysis and CMRBS assessment. (3) The energy-conservation and emission-mitigation strategy caused CMRBS to effectively increase and is the key to promoting a more significant emission mitigation in the future. Overall, this paper covers the CMRBS assessment gap in China, and the proposed assessment model can be regarded as a reference for other countries and cities for measuring the retrospective CO2 mitigation effect in residential buildings.