Low-carbon lifestyles deliver broad climate benefits, strengthened by environmental self-identity

Low-carbon lifestyles deliver broad climate benefits, strengthened by environmental self-identity | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Low-carbon lifestyles deliver broad climate benefits, strengthened by environmental self-identity David Andersson, Jonas Nässén This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7506754/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Demand-side changes are increasingly recognized as critical for meeting climate targets, yet their true mitigation potential depends on indirect effects such as economic rebound or behavioral spillover, which are difficult to quantify. Empirical evidence linking real-world lifestyles to net greenhouse gas (GHG) impacts in representative populations is scarce. Here we combine financial transaction data, registry records, and survey responses from a randomly selected sample of 847 Swedish single-adult households to quantify the direct and indirect GHG impacts of three high-impact lifestyle choices: living without a car, avoiding air travel, and adopting a vegetarian diet. These behaviours were associated with net reductions of 32%, 20%, and 12% of average annual emissions (1.9, 1.2, and 0.7 tCO 2 e per person, respectively). In all cases, reductions exceeded the direct effects, indicating that—contrary to common assumptions of rebound—other domains of spending also shifted toward lower emissions. Individuals with stronger environmental self-identity achieved an additional 0.10--0.15~tCO 2 e/year. Our findings suggest that estimates of demand-side mitigation potential may be systematically underestimated, and that identity could play a significant role in amplifying the climate benefits of lifestyle change. Sociology Environmental Policy Behavioral Economics Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics approval: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Etikprövningsmyndigheten), approval number 2024-01766-02. All participants were adults and provided informed consent to participate, to link bank transactions via BankID/Tink, and to link survey and registry data. Personal identifiers were stored separately from analysis data; analyses were conducted on de-identified datasets in a secure environment, in accordance with GDPR. Supplementary Files SIforNCCtest.pdf Supplementary Information Low-carbon lifestyles deliver broad climate benefits, strengthened by environmental self-identity Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7506754","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":508456064,"identity":"a6e74c09-29dd-43cd-a4d2-6d0ce9a5631d","order_by":0,"name":"David Andersson","email":"data:image/png;base64,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","orcid":"","institution":"Chalmers University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"David","middleName":"","lastName":"Andersson","suffix":""},{"id":508456065,"identity":"64ddd217-dc2b-4004-9d9f-5c94183d5886","order_by":1,"name":"Jonas Nässén","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Chalmers University of Technology","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Jonas","middleName":"","lastName":"Nässén","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2025-09-01 09:37:15","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":{"humanSubjects":false,"vertebrateSubjects":false,"conflictsOfInterestStatement":false,"humanSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false,"humanSubjectConsent":false,"humanSubjectClinicalTrial":false,"humanSubjectCaseReport":false,"vertebrateSubjectEthicalGuidelines":false},"doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7506754/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7506754/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":90635821,"identity":"3c0c9af8-adeb-49b9-b3b7-373b40144a51","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-05 04:39:44","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":249779,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"NCCadjustedtest4.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7506754/v1_covered_5d479abc-cc59-41c0-8aef-7f02642f0231.pdf"},{"id":90635499,"identity":"dd55afd9-5323-4542-bc50-4e92623eb31d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2025-09-05 04:31:43","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":131219,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"\u003cp\u003eSupplementary Information Low-carbon lifestyles deliver broad climate benefits, strengthened by environmental self-identity\u003c/p\u003e","description":"","filename":"SIforNCCtest.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-7506754/v1/75778f16da4706a63c554616.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"\u003cp\u003eThe authors declare no competing interests.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eEthics approval: The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Swedish Ethical Review Authority (Etikprövningsmyndigheten), approval number 2024-01766-02. 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