Study: Women Emit Significantly Less Carbon Than Men, Partly Due to Lower Red Meat Consumption
A new paper by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment has analyzed the carbon footprint gender gap in food and transportation. The study uses survey data on the food consumption of 2,100 representative French individuals and the transport patterns of 12,500 others. It finds that women emit 26% less carbon than men in these sectors, which together account for half of the average individual’s carbon footprint. Men’s food and transport consumption produce 5.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide-equivalent (tCO2e) on average, while women’s produce 3.9 tCO2e. The study emphasizes that the gap is not just due to men eating more calories or having longer commutes — 25% of the food footprint gap and 38% of the transport footprint gap remain unexplained after …
