University of British Columbia & EDF; read full article at ScienceDaily
- Travelers are willing to pay a little more for flights if they know the extra money will be used to address carbon emissions, per new study
How those fees are presented at the time of ticket purchase is the key to consumer acceptance. People respond better when the fee is labeled as a carbon offset rather than a tax. And they respond better if they know the producers and importers of airplane fuel have been billed for it — not just themselves.
“People have the perception that the oil companies are the ones responsible for climate change, or at least more responsible than they are,” says study co-author David Hardisty, an assistant professor of marketing and behavioural science at UBC Sauder School of Business. “Consumers are more supportive of carbon pricing if it’s directed at the fossil fuel producers and importers than if it’s directed at consumers.”….
David J. Hardisty, Alec T. Beall, Ruben Lubowski, Annie Petsonk, Rainer Romero-Canyas. A carbon price by another name may seem sweeter: Consumers prefer upstream offsets to downstream taxes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 2019; 66: 101342 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2019.101342
