Publicerad artikel

Consumer Perceptions and Attitudes towards Climate Information on Food, Journal of Cleaner Production, 370, 133441

Författare: Anna Kristina Edenbrandt  Carl-Johan Lagerkvist 

The food sector is a major contributor to climate change, and reducing meat consumption is important to achieve significant reductions in global carbon emissions. The implementation of information policies to reduce carbon emissions from red meat consumption entails understanding of how such information is expected to be received and used by consumers. This study uses survey data from a consumer panel, and match this with data on the same respondents' actual purchase behavior based on scanner data. Individuals with lower knowledge levels about the climate impact from food purchase the highest share of red meat, and the lowest share of sustainability labelled products. This indicates that information provision has the potential to increase knowledge among individuals with the highest climate impact. Four sub-groups of consumers are identified in a latent class cluster model based on their motivations for consuming or avoiding meat. It is mainly the ‘meat reducers’ and ‘meat avoiders’ that are interested in using climate information when purchasing food. However, individuals in these sub-groups already purchase the least amount of meat and the highest amount of sustainable products. These findings point to limitations with climate information as a policy instrument, and suggests that other measures are needed as complements to initiate and achieve the necessary changes in consumption patterns.

Författare:


Anna Kristina Edenbrandt

Carl-Johan Lagerkvist