The relationship between psychological characteristics, socioeconomic status, and carbon footprint

Experts widely agree that achieving a climate-neutral economic mode of production requires not only supply-side changes, but also significant individual and structural changes in consumer demand. Despite the urgent need for policy action to mitigate climate change, there remains a lack of knowledge on the interplay between psychological and socioeconomic factors that influence individual carbon emissions. However, without a fundamental understanding of these factors and their long-term impact on carbon emissions, policy interventions risk being ineffective at best, and at worst, they may result in harmful unintended consequences. With climate change posing a serious threat, it is critical to avoid wasting time and resources on uninformed policies based on incorrect assumptions. Hence, the main objective of this study is to quantify the underlying structural relationship between socioeconomic status, psychological characteristics, and individual carbon emissions.