Quantifying the potential for consumer-oriented policy to reduce European and foreign carbon emissions

Abstract

The EU Carbon-CAP project assembled a comprehensive portfolio of consumer initiatives in order to assess the potential total impact of consumer options on national carbon footprints. Existing evaluations of behavioural change have focused primarily on direct energy reductions, typically in households and buildings. However, changes in consumer demand have deeper impacts via their upstream supply chains. The consumer behaviour options considered in the portfolio focus on green household initiatives. Combining existing micro-level studies with a multiregional input-output economic model, we estimated the potential efficacy and uptake of each behaviour across the European Union (EU). The results suggest that adopting these consumer options could reduce carbon footprints by approximately 25%. While 75% of this is delivered as reductions in emissions within Europe, one-quarter of the effect is delivered as a reduced imported carbon footprint, due to changes in the composition of imports. Key policy insights. Consumer initiatives can have a big effect on embodied carbon imports, in addition to domestic impacts. We connect a portfolio of ∼90 green behaviour changes to a global supply chain database to model impacts holistically. We estimate that with reasonable levels of adoption green consumer actions can reduce the EU CO2 footprint by 25%. A quarter of this effect is delivered in the form of reduced embodied emissions in imports ARTICLE HISTORY

Living within a One Planet reality: the contribution of personal Footprint calculators

“…Sustainable production ensures products are produced efficiently while protecting public health and the environment, but it may be insufficient to reduce the overall impact of a growing human population on the biosphere, sustainable production thus needs to be coupled with measures and approaches that address consumption (Jackson 2005) and increased knowledge of the effectiveness of consumers' options and lifestyle choices (e.g. Wynes andNicholas 2017 andMoran et al 2018). Affluence, human behaviour and personal daily choices, among other things, determine individuals' consumption of resources (Myers and Kent 2003, Weinzettel et al 2013, Collins et al 2018, and affect the ability of our planet to support ever increasing demands.…”

Consumption-based carbon accounting: sense and sensibility

“…This last finding indicates, as a third point, that the consumption-based perspective remains relevant. Against this background, Moran et al (2020) modelled a large portfolio of mutually exclusive actions that help to reduce emissions from a consumption-based perspective (e.g. 'use carpooling', 'turn room thermostat down 1 degree', and 'reduce food waste').…”

Consumption-oriented policy instruments for fostering greenhouse gas mitigation

“…The potential to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through altering behaviour and patterns of consumption has gained increasing attention in recent years (Capstick, Lorenzoni, Corner, & Whitmarsh, 2014;Creutzig et al, 2016;Schanes, Giljum, & Hertwich, 2016). In one of the most extensive and comprehensive studies to date, Moran et al (2020) estimate that opportunities from changes in consumer behaviour could reduce the EU's overall carbon footprint by about 25%.…”

“…Moreover, significant complementarity with production-based policies can be achieved by targeting hard-to-reach emission sources such as industrial processes that are difficult or expensive to clean up (Bataille et al, 2018). Indeed, many of the options identified by Moran et al (2020) are beyond the reach of traditional production-and-product oriented policies. Nonetheless, identifying the potential associated with consumer mitigation behaviours-is only one step.…”