Why French men have a higher carbon footprint than women

According to a study published by the London School of Economics, French men’s CO₂ emissions are, on average, 26% higher than women’s in the food and transport sectors, the two largest sources of pollution in France. Audrey Garric discusses the study in an article on the Le Monde website

More red meat and large cars: Why men emit more CO₂ than women in France

Men, who love barbecues and SUVs, pollute more than women. A stereotype? Not entirely, according to a French study published on Wednesday, May 14, by the London School of Economics (LSE), which quantifies the gender gap in greenhouse gas emissions. It reveals that men emit 26% more CO2 than women in transport and food, two sectors that account for 50% of France’s national household carbon footprint. Men account for an average of 5.3 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) per year for those two sectors, compared to 3.9 tCO2e for women.

“These differences are very significant, comparable to the carbon footprint disparity between the richest 50% of French and the poorest 50%,” said Marion Leroutier, a co-author of the study and an environmental economics researcher at the Center for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST).

Part of the gender gap was explained by socio-economic factors: types of employment status (part-time or full-time, for example), place of residence and socio-professional categories. Men tend to travel longer distances, especially when commuting to work, and consume more calories – health authorities consider their nutritional needs to be 24% higher than women’s. However, once these parameters are taken into account, a portion of the carbon footprint gap (38% in transport and 25% in food) remains unexplained.

The researchers particularly called out two high-carbon products that have gendered stereotypes around them: cars and red meat. “Men consume more red meat,” which can be up to seven times more polluting than other meats, continued Leroutier. They don’t necessarily use their cars more often, but they travel longer distances with more polluting vehicles and lower vehicle occupancy rates.

To achieve these results, the authors analyzed the emissions generated by the diets of 2,100 French adults and the transport patterns of 12,500 others, nearly 15,000 people in total. They notably relied on several benchmark studies: One of them was the latest study on consumption and eating habits of France’s population conducted by the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) – although the data dates from 2014-2015 – and another was a study on mobility carried out by the Environmental Transition Ministry in 2018-2019.

The ‘gender gap’ widens when the French couple up

The authors weren’t able to study the subjects’ complete carbon footprints due to a lack of individual data in other sectors. “But it’s highly unlikely that the overall gap would be different,” said Ondine Berland, the other co-author and postdoctoral researcher in environmental economics at LSE. Moreover, they pointed out that CO2 emissions related to housing seemed to have little correlation to gender. “So men would need to pollute 80% less than women concerning goods and services to offset the gender gap in food and transport,” Berland continued.

Household structure also plays a role in this. Generally, single men and women have smaller carbon footprints than those in a relationship. “Our hypothesis is that these people are either younger or older and, therefore, have fewer constrained trips,” said Leroutier.

In terms of transport, the gender gap widens when the French couple up, “perhaps because women more often switch to a part-time job and transport children more,” which can reduce the carbon footprint linked to their trips, suggested Berland. When there are two vehicles, women tend to use the smaller one, and men drive the family vehicle. Conversely, in food terms, the carbon footprint gap narrows between members of a couple. “Women adapt to their partner’s diet and increase their meat consumption,” added the researcher.

According to the authors, the emission gap between men and women results from the gendered distribution of social roles and the influence of gender norms rather than a greater degree of concern for the environment among women. This hypothesis is reinforced, they said, by the absence of gender differences in emissions related to air travel, once socio-economic biases are removed. Yet, this mode of transport, which, according to the researchers, is not subject to stereotypical gender norms, is very CO2 intensive.

Deconstructing social norms

“This study aligns with well-documented sociological findings on consumption differences between men and women, but it allows us to measure the effects on emissions, which are quite massive,” said sociologist Sophie Dubuisson-Quellier, a member of the High Council for the Climate. “It also means that women suffer climate change damage for which they are much less responsible than men.”

Deconstructing social norms – especially those conveyed by advertising – that associate masculinity with meat consumption and car use could reduce emissions. “Making the decision-making burden [regarding food and transport] more equitable between women and men within households could also lower the carbon footprint,” said Leroutier.

If all men adopted the same habits as women in terms of food and transport (yet without reducing quantities of food or constrained distances), they could avoid generating 13.4 million metric tons of CO2 each year, more than twice the new annual reduction targets set for these sectors by 2030.

Yet attempts to question the role of cars or meat-based diets have faced significant resistance. The term “soyboy” has, for example, been used by the American far right to denigrate vegetarians and, more generally, all men who do not conform to macho norms.

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