Climate-friendly Products – to buy or not to buy?

Abstract

Although climate change is reported to be an important issue for European citizens, market relevance of climate-friendly labelled products remains limited. Various barriers such as low knowledge, distrust in labels, time preference and uncertainty/risk prevent consumers from acting according to their ethical attitudes. The aim of this contribution is to better understand the factors which influence consumers’ purchase behaviour of climate-friendly labelled products with emphasis on knowledge, trust in labels and time preference. Based on the data obtained by an online survey with 6007 respondents in six European countries (DE, ES, FR, IT, NO, UK) in July 2015 a multinomial regression was conducted. Dependent variable was the actual buying frequency of climate-friendly food. Higher subjective knowledge had a positive impact while lack of trust in labels negatively influenced the probability of purchasing climate-friendly products. Test persons with higher time preference were less likely to buy climate-friendly products and vice versa. This is in line with theoretical considerations according to which the present saving of money and pleasure gains are valued higher than the possible benefits resulting of less future impacts of climate change. In contrast, the effects of different indicators of risk attitudes were ambiguous.