With the rapid development of the economy, household activities have emerged as an important source of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, making them a crucial focal point for research in the pursuit of sustainable development and carbon emission reduction. Hulunber, as a typical steppe region in eastern Eurasia, is representative of studying the GHG emissions from household ranches, which are the basic production units in this region. In this paper, based on survey data of 2018 and 2019, we quantified and assessed GHG emissions from household ranches by combining life cycle assessment (LCA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) approaches, with LCA to define household ranches system boundary and SEM to determine the key driving factors of emissions. The results showed that GHG emissions of meat sheep live weight was 23.54 kg CO2-eq/kg. The major contributor to household GHG emissions was enteric methane (55.23 %), followed by coal use (20.80 %) and manure management systems (9.16 %), and other contributing factors (14.81 %). The SEM results indicated that the GHG emissions from household ranches were derived primarily by economic level, while the economic level was significantly affected by income. This study also found a significant positive and linear correlation between household GHG emissions and the number of meat sheep (R2 = 0.89, P < 0.001). The GHG emissions from meat sheep production (67.52 %) were double times greater than household livelihood consumption (32.48 %). These findings emphasized the importance of reducing emissions from meat sheep production and adjusting the energy mix of household livelihood, contributing to the establishment of a low-carbon household livelihood operation.
Keywords: Eurasian steppe; Household ranches; Life cycle assessment; Structural equation modeling.
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