Abstract
PurposeGiven the increasing importance of political decision-making to reduce emission targets, the main purpose of the current paper is to identify and test the considerations that would nudge consumers towards an environmentally and health-friendly motor vehicle.MethodsAn online survey was conducted to assess public responses and the role of public authorities to a voluntary emission standard for passenger cars. In addition, two online experiments were conducted to test incentives in the design of ecolabels (e.g. price, safety, performance) for optimization. A random sample of 6400 individuals was drawn from eight countries: Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, UK, Czech Republic and Lithuania. An online survey was conducted among 3200 respondents, 400 in each of the 8 countries, and 2 online experiments with 3200 subjects, 400 in each of the 8 countries, allowing for 200 respondents for each experiment in each country.Results and discussionThe survey shows that Europeans are aware of the health and environmental impact of cars. The findings also confirm the gap between self-reported attitudes/intentions and actual behaviours. In influencing car purchase decisions, health and environmental concerns are less important than other attributes such as price, safety and performance. The experiments show that all these attributes have a significant effect on consumers’ choices. However, message content was found to have the strongest effect. Respondents are more likely to choose European Union Low Emitting carS (EULES)-friendly cars when the label shows information on lower costs or lower taxes and less likely to be influenced by health-related benefits, convenient parking or access fees. Finally, combinations of one message with other elements—EULES logo, CO2 logo or both—within the same label have a small but positive effect on respondents’ choices.ConclusionsThe findings of this study assist governmental decision-making processes by identifying those issues that have the greatest impact on consumers’ car purchasing decisions. Furthermore, the results will help to guide environmentally conscious customers towards the purchase of vehicles with clean emission profiles.
Highlights
The Paris Agreement, ratified globally by practically every country, except the USA and North Korea (UNFCCC 2018), states that economy-wide decisions should be introduced to achieve absolute emission reduction targets
In order to comply with the directives of the Paris Agreement, European member states will be obliged to take green initiatives to reduce air pollution in cities and highly trafficked areas (Kushwaha and Sharma 2016)
The principal objective of the project was to provide the background on the potential of a voluntary low-emission standard for passenger cars in order to deliver realworld emission levels below the most stringent current emission limits, as well as to develop the technical and legal background for its implementation study focusses on two separate objectives: first, mapping the contours of public responses and the role of public authorities to a voluntary emission standard for passenger cars that would deliver real-world emission levels below the current limits; second, experimentally testing the impact of different incentives designed to support the European Union Low Emitting carS (EULES) policy
Summary
The Paris Agreement, ratified globally by practically every country, except the USA and North Korea (UNFCCC 2018), states that economy-wide decisions should be introduced to achieve absolute emission reduction targets. Road transportation in Europe is a significant contributor to CO2 emissions, as well as air pollutants such as particulate matter and nitrogen oxides (EEA 2015; Davis et al 2010). The greenhouse gas emissions from road transportation have significant impact on the environment and on human health (Woodcock et al 2009). Greenhouse gas emissions still remain above agreed levels and would need to fall dramatically in order to meet international agreements (UNFCCC 2018). In order to comply with the directives of the Paris Agreement, European member states will be obliged to take green initiatives (e.g. fiscal incentives, local access restrictions for particular vehicles, local environmental zones differentiating vehicle access according to emission classes or ecolabels) to reduce air pollution in cities and highly trafficked areas (Kushwaha and Sharma 2016). Ecolabels are viewed as voluntary environmental and consumer policy instruments and taken to be a simple and pragmatic option
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