Brief summary
The goal of the DISCO(H) project is to assess, analyse and monitor carbon and environmental footprint inequalities in the EU. The project measures how different groups in society contribute differently to the overall environmental and carbon footprint of the EU.
Studying footprint inequality and its drivers ensures that climate and environmental policies do not unfairly penalise the groups contributing the least to environmental degradation.
This is a crucial step towards successful fair green transition and it may contribute to increasing public awareness and support for behavioural and lifestyle changes.
The project outputs include:
- Providing a ready-to-use dataset of consumption footprint inequality in the EU, considering 16 environmental impact categories
- Conducting distributional analyses of the footprint across different economic and socio-demographic groups, within and between Member States
- Analysing the drivers of footprint inequality, notably the role of different consumption areas and behavioural choices
- Carrying out scenario analyses of hypothetical changes in the consumption footprint and their impact on footprint inequality
- Examining the evolution over time of footprint inequality
Evidence from DISCO(H) in EU policy-making
The DISCO(H) project has provided, and continues to provide, important inputs to several policy files and negotiations, including:
- the European Semester and the dedicated thematic Annexes as part of the annual Semester Country Reports.
- the Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE).
- ongoing work on the development of indicators and data for fair green transition and sustainable lifestyles.
Additionally, the project findings are used in EMPL-JRC Fair Transition Working Papers and policy briefs, and JRC scientific publications.
Detailed background and approach
The project strengthens data availability on footprint inequality by providing novel ready-to-use dataset of the consumption footprint in the EU.
The data illustrate consumption patterns of different socio-economic and demographic groups as well as their implications across 16 environmental impact categories.
These categories include climate change, as well as water use, land consumption, and resource depletion, among others.
Based on these data, the project provides a detailed analysis of the level and distribution of the consumption footprint across Member States, income levels and other socio-demographic and economic characteristics.
It further analyses which consumption areas – food, mobility, housing, household appliances – contribute to the overall footprint inequality.
Lastly, the project explores potential policies that could address the existing carbon and environmental footprint inequalities in a fair manner, ensuring no one is left behind.
Methodology
As detailed in the methodological report, DISCO(H) achieves its objectives by merging two data sources: detailed expenditure microdata from the EU Household Budget Survey (HBS) provided by Eurostat and carbon and environmental impact factors from the JRC Consumption Footprint. The former provides information on European households’ consumption patterns, while the latter contains data on the environmental footprint associated with the lifecycle of a wide range of representative products of household consumption.
- The JRC Consumption Footprint employs the Environmental Footprint (EF) life cycle impact assessment method, which is the recommended method by the European Commission for the life cycle assessment of products and organisations (EU Commission Recommendation 2021/2279).
- The EF method assesses impacts in 16 environmental impact categories, which may be aggregated into a single weighted score to evaluate overall progress.
Combining data from EU-HBS and the JRC Consumption Footprint makes it possible to infer the level and distribution of consumption footprint in a comprehensive, granular, disaggregated and customised manner across the EU for the first time.
In particular, once the consumption footprint is calculated at the household-level for the entire sample, it is possible to aggregate the microdata to the cell-level and produce ready-to-use detailed statistics on consumption footprint by country, region, settlement type, individual and household characteristics.
These data can then be used in isolation or integrated with other household surveys for a wide range of follow-up socio-economic analyses and can further inform monitoring frameworks in the EU.
Outcomes
Results from the DISCO(H) project additionally provide insights into the drivers of footprint inequality, thanks to the granularity of the data used.
The DISCO(H) data also allow for testing the sustainability of different groups’ consumption patterns against the planetary boundaries, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, and reveal the 'true cost' of consumption based on a monetised footprint value.
By exploiting the time series of EU-HBS, the dataset enables the evolution of footprint inequality to be monitored over time.
Additionally, using the Life Cycle Assessment method allows for scenario analyses of hypothetical changes in the consumption footprint and their impact on footprint inequality.
Outputs
European Commission: Joint Research Centre, Ciccolini, G., Joossens, E., Wierzgala, P., Zec, S. et al., Carbon and environmental footprint inequality of household consumption in the EU – A new methodology, Publications Office of the European Union, 2024, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2760/841471