The Geographical Distribution and Correlates of Pro-Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors in an Urban Region

Áróra Árnadóttir, Michał Czepkiewicz and Jukka Heinonen
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Áróra Árnadóttir: Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Iceland, Hjarðarhagi 6, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland
Michał Czepkiewicz: Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Iceland, Hjarðarhagi 6, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland
Jukka Heinonen: Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, The University of Iceland, Hjarðarhagi 6, 107 Reykjavík, Iceland

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 8, 1-29

Abstract: A lot of emphasis has been put on the densification of urban form to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transportation. However, many recent studies have found that central urban dwellers, even though their carbon footprints of daily transportation may be lower, might be responsible for higher total emissions than those that reside in suburban areas. Similarly, as with the urban form, higher environmental concern is often considered as an indicator of lower emissions, but several studies have found that pro-environmental attitude (PEA) does not always correlate with less energy intensive behavior. This study analyzes how urban zones, PEA, and several sociodemographic variables are associated with annual travel emissions and pro-environmental behaviors (PEB), using a dataset collected with a map-based online survey (softGIS) survey, contributed by 841 participants from the Helsinki Metropolitan Area (HMA), Finland. Although PEA can affect PEBs related to household energy consumption (β = 0.282, p < 0.001), clothing (β = 0.447, p < 0.001) and produce purchases (β = 0.449, p < 0.0001), their relationship with emissions from local (β = −0.067), national (β = −0.019) and international (β = −0.016) travel was not significant. Clusters of low emissions from local travel and high international travel emissions were found in pedestrian-oriented urban zones and residents of car-oriented zones were more likely to conserve household energy (β = 0.102, p < 0.05). These results might help broaden the current perspective of city planners, as well as identify opportunities for more effective mitigation policies.

Keywords: pro-environmental attitude; pro-environmental behavior; greenhouse gases; urban zones; local travel; national travel; international travel (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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