O'Garra Tanya, Fouquet Roger
Department of Economics, Middlesex University, London, UK.
Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK.
Ecol Econ. 2022 Mar;193:107297. doi: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2021.107297. Epub 2021 Nov 23.
This paper explores people's willingness to reduce travel consumption in support of the transition to a low-carbon pathway beyond COVID-19, using new survey data from UK car drivers and air travellers. Evidence from our study indicates that reductions of 24% - 30% to car use and 20% - 26% to air travel could be sustained in the long term. This potentially could lead to annual reductions of 343-529 kgCO per car driver (20% - 29% of pre-COVID-19 car emissions) and 215-359 kgCO per air traveller (10% - 20% of pre-COVID-19 emissions from flying), suggesting that behavioural change may be a major route to emissions reductions. We find that stated voluntary reductions are greater among those who report having 'more time to do creative things' since the start of the COVID-19 lockdowns. Hence, recovery policies promoting low-carbon leisure time may be a key to consumption reductions. We also find that higher-income travellers consume and pollute substantially more than the rest, and yet there is little difference in relative voluntary reductions across the income distribution. We conclude that behaviour associated with affluence represents a major barrier to a low-carbon transition, and that policies must address over-consumption associated with affluence as a priority.
本文利用来自英国汽车驾驶者和航空旅客的新调查数据，探讨了人们为支持向新冠疫情后低碳路径转型而减少出行消费的意愿。我们研究的证据表明，长期来看，汽车使用量可减少24% - 30%，航空旅行量可减少20% - 26%。这可能导致每位汽车驾驶者每年减少343 - 529千克二氧化碳排放量（占新冠疫情前汽车排放量的20% - 29%），每位航空旅客每年减少215 - 359千克二氧化碳排放量（占新冠疫情前飞行排放量的10% - 20%），这表明行为改变可能是减排的主要途径。我们发现，自新冠疫情封锁开始以来，那些表示“有更多时间做创造性事情”的人所宣称的自愿减少量更大。因此，推广低碳休闲时间的复苏政策可能是减少消费的关键。我们还发现，高收入旅行者的消费和污染比其他人多得多，但在不同收入群体中，相对自愿减少量几乎没有差异。我们得出结论，与富裕相关的行为是低碳转型的主要障碍，政策必须优先解决与富裕相关的过度消费问题。
