Study: French Men Have 26% Higher Carbon Footprint than Women Courtesy ‘Red Meat and Cars’

A claimed “gender gap” in carbon emissions was revealed Wednesday in a French study that found women emit 26 percent less carbon than men due to their diet and transport choices.

Researchers say household structure between the sexes plays a “key role” in shaping the carbon footprint gap and men appear to be leading the way – at least in France.

France 24 reports the details and summarises the findings based on a preprint study of 15,000 people in France:

The average man in France has a 26% higher carbon footprint than the average woman largely due to increased car usage and red meat consumption, a study released on Wednesday by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST) found.

Researchers analysed French consumption data from more than 2,000 car models and food products matched with detailed environmental information to shed light on the “underexplored factor” of how gender might impact carbon emissions.

It found men in France had an annual average carbon footprint associated with food and transport of 5.3 tonnes, compared with 3.9 tonnes for women, largely due to differences in consumption of what the working paper describes as two “gender stereotypical” goods: red meat and cars.

“Women have substantially lower carbon footprints than men in the food and transport sectors,” said one of the study authors, Ondine Berland, a fellow in environmental economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, according to the outlet.

“We identify household structure, biological differences, higher red meat consumption and car usage among men as key factors driving this gap.”

Red meat, namely beef and lamb,  is claimed to be the most carbon intensive of all foods and road travel accounts for three quarters of global transport emissions – more than any other form of transport, France 24 notes.

In France, the food and transport sectors account for 50 percent of household carbon footprints.

Past research from Sweden has found men’s spending on goods causes 16 percent more “climate-heating emissions” than women’s, despite the sums of money being spent remaining very similar, the Guardian reported.

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