The behavioral response to a corporate carbon offset program: A field experiment on adverse effects and mitigation strategies

Günther, Sebastian A.; Staake, Thorsten; Schöb, Samuel; Tiefenbeck, Verena

doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102123

Cited by 33 publications

(31 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…This effect is illustrated in Figure 1. Although previous studies have shown that compensation for environmental impact induces environmentally critical behavior (e.g., Günther et al, 2020), our results suggest that the mere option to compensate is sufficient to encourage consumers to engage in environmentally critical behavior.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 87%

“…If individuals would be very clearly confronted with the negative environmental impact of their consumption decisions, it might become harder to deny or trivialize them. Findings by Günther et al (2020) support this suggestion, as they found that real‐time feedback on the environmental impact prevents an increase in critical consumption. Another opportunity would be to provide more transparent information about the effectiveness of carbon offsetting initiatives.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

“…Substitution is more likely when offsetting is perceived to be effective, whereas complementary use is more likely when offsetting is perceived to have medium effectiveness in climate protection. Günther et al (2020) find that hostel guests who know that their water usage is compensated by the accommodation show significantly higher water consumption. Even though the participants do not compensate for their environmentally critical behavior themselves, the knowledge of the compensation is sufficient to impact their behavior.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

et al. 2021

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Purchases of voluntary carbon offsets (VCOs) are growing tremendously. At the same time, the number of activities and products for which VCOs are available is increasing. Experts discuss whether offering VCOs is exclusively associated with positive effects on the environment or if it instead may lead to increased consumption of environmentally critical products. To date, empirical evidence on such adverse effects is scarce. Therefore, this study uses a randomized controlled trial design to investigate how the availability of VCOs affects consumers' choices for environmentally critical products. The results suggest that when VCOs are available, the likelihood of environmentally critical consumption increases. From a mental accounting perspective, our findings support the theoretical rationale of VCOs as an instrument for moral licensing. Additionally, our results indicate that individuals tend to trivialize the harmfulness of the environmentally critical product and overestimate the effectiveness of VCOs for environmental protection, which we consider strategies for reducing cognitive dissonance and guilt.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 83%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

et al. 2021

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“…For example, [37] improved the calculation method of the interregional carbon compensation cost, based on the theoretical carbon deficit. While, reference [38] examined how the announcement of an organizational carbon offset program affected consumption in a CO 2 -intensive everyday activity. As for the impact of other factors on carbon emissions, foreign direct investment (FDI) has both a promoting and an inhibiting effect on carbon emissions performance [39,40].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Urbanization and Industrial Structure on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from Huaihe River Eco-Economic Zone

Pang

Zhou

Zhao

et al. 2021

Land

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Rapid urbanization in China greatly contributes to carbon emissions, while the industrial structure greatly contributes to changes in the variation of carbon emissions. This research addresses the impact of urbanization and industrial structure on carbon emissions from 2010 to 2018, by focusing on the Huaihe River Eco-economic Zone, which is an important economic corridor along the north–south division of China. Although many studies have focused on investigating the impact of urbanization or industrial structure on carbon emissions, few studies further addressed an analysis of the impact of both on carbon emissions, using multiple measurement models. This paper reveals the holistic and local impact of industrial structure and urbanization on carbon emissions, by integrating a threshold regression model with geographically weighted regression. The results are as follows: (1) From a holistic point of view, industrial structure and urbanization had both, single threshold, and double threshold effects on carbon emissions in the Huaihe River Eco-economic Zone. (2) From a regional perspective, the coefficients of industrial structure on carbon emissions were all positive, but the rate of increase gradually slowed down. The coefficients of urbanization on carbon emissions were all negative, reaching a maximum value of negative effect in 2013. Understanding the holistic and local impact of urbanization and industrial structure on carbon emissions provides governments with differentiated and forward-looking suggestions for mitigating carbon emissions in the Huaihe River Eco-economic Zone.

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“…For example, European flights are already operated under the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (European Commission, 2021;Skelton, 2013) and other policy instruments such as mandatory feed-in quotas for sustainable aviation fuel are discussed (Gössling et al, 2021). Yet, under current legislation, voluntary climate action through corporate offsetting programs (Günther et al, 2020) continues to play a pivotal role. Voluntary climate action not only allows a glimpse into passengers' motivation to pay higher amounts in order to travel carbon neutral but offsetting flightrelated emissions also marks an effort that can be used to assess people's individual willingness to contribute to humanity's mitigation efforts.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Willingness-to-pay for CO2 offsets: A large-scale field study on revealed preferences in the aviation

Schlöder¹,

Berger²,

Kilchenmann³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Studies assessing people’s willingness-to-pay for carbon offsets are overwhelmingly grounded in hypothetical stated-preference approaches. Here, we report on a large-scale observational field study involving a final sample of 63,520 bookings made with a European airline, allowing us to gauge willingness-to-pay for offsets in a revealed-preference approach. Our pre-registered study shows that the median willingness-to-pay to voluntarily offset a ton of CO2 from flight-related emissions is zero, with the mean willingness-to-pay being around 1 EUR. Neither prices of the offset nor airfares are predictive of offsetting behavior in a highly powered sample. Climate vulnerability of the destination has no significant impact on the compensation decision either. On the other hand, higher ancillary spending is associated with an increased likelihood to compensate, even though the effect size is low due to the general unwillingness to internalize flight-related emissions. Additionally, we find the choice of a vegetarian meal to be of similar predictive power (significant, but low in effect size given an overall low proportion of passengers choosing a vegetarian meal). Our results inform existing research on stated preferences as well as mitigation efforts relying on voluntary climate action.

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The behavioral response to a corporate carbon offset program: A field experiment on adverse effects and mitigation strategies

Cited by 33 publications

References 46 publications

Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

Voluntary carbon offsetting and consumer choices for environmentally critical products—An experimental study

Impact of Urbanization and Industrial Structure on Carbon Emissions: Evidence from Huaihe River Eco-Economic Zone

Willingness-to-pay for CO2 offsets: A large-scale field study on revealed preferences in the aviation

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