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This article studies if, how, and why different revenue uses affect public attitudes to environmental taxation. More specifically, using a large-scale (N = 4292) randomized survey experiment with a 2 × 3 factorial design, the article analyses how attitudes towards a proposed increase in the current air passenger tax in Sweden are altered when combining a tax increase with three different suggestions for revenue use. The increasingly popular fee-and-dividend solution, where revenues are distributed back to the public, thus decreasing negative distributive tax effects, is compared with two additional revenue uses: unspecified government spending on welfare services, and re-investment of revenues into aviation biofuels. Our results show that, although some of the commonly used independent variables such as climate concern, personal norms and political-ideological orientation are significant in determining policy attitudes, varying both tax level and revenue use also tangibly affects how a policy proposal is received. Interestingly, however, the fee-and-dividend approach does not yield the most positive policy attitudes. Rather, directing the revenues to fund an increased use of biofuels for aviation is the alternative that most clearly drives positive attitudes to this policy, and is also the alternative that is perceived as the most effective and fair in both the high tax and the low tax alternatives. • Analyses of community attitudes to an increase in the Swedish air passenger tax. • Three types of revenue use are considered: Fee-and-dividend, Welfare, and Biofuels. • The fee-and-dividend approach does not yield the most positive policy attitudes. • Earmarking the revenue for biofuels leads to higher perceived fairness, effectiveness, and public support. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Working time reduction (WTR) is a policy that could improve quality of life while reducing environmental impacts. However, WTR coupled with a salary reduction may benefit only higher-income earners and increase social inequalities. Against this background, we analyze how the motivations for and the socioecological outcomes from working less vary across different socioeconomic groups. The analysis is based on a survey conducted among municipal employees under full-time contracts who utilized the City of Gothenburg's "right to parttime" policy. We find that working less improved quality of life not only for higher-income groups but also for lower-income groups through gains in time affluence, energy, health, and time spent on strengthening social ties. However, three negative effects emerged. First, WTR lead to increased work intensification, particularly among higher-income earners. Second, concerns regarding making ends meet and future retirement income were particularly salient issues among lower-income earners. Finally, WTR to cope with unfavorable working conditions was a much more common motivation among manual workers with lower salaries. We conclude that WTR can be a viable option across a broader range of socioeconomic groups than previously assumed but that it is nevertheless important to consider the effects on social inequality when designing WTR policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global civil aviation accounts for 4–5% of total greenhouse gas emissions and these emissions are increasing. In the absence of sufficiently effective global climate instruments, national instruments might be considered as a complement, in which case some way of allocating emissions from international air travel between countries is needed. The purpose of this paper is to develop an accounting method that reflects one country's greenhouse gas emissions from international air travel, and to apply this methodology to Sweden. The new methodology consists of three parts: the number of international air trips made by the country's residents; the average distance of these trips; and the greenhouse gas emissions per passenger km. For Sweden, data for 1990 to 2014 show an increase in the number of trips by Sweden's population of 3.6% per year, resulting in, on average, one international journey (round trip 5800 km) per capita in 2014. The average distance to the final destination has increased only marginally due to simultaneous growth in both long and short trips. However, global average greenhouse gas emissions per passenger km have decreased by 1.9% per year between 1990 and 2014. Because the increase in the number of their trips has outweighed the decrease in emissions per km, the total emissions from Swedish residents' international air travel have increased by 61% between 1990 and 2014. The total emissions from Swedish residents' air travel, including both CO 2 and non-CO 2 -effects, were 11 Mt CO 2 equivalents in 2014, which is the same level as the emissions from Swedish car traffic. This type of reliable data is important when designing policies and for getting public support for new policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Possible strategies to mitigate the climate impact of tourism transport include encouraging tourism to closer destinations and supporting more sustainable modes of transport, including trains. Today international trips by railways only have a small market share but night trains are considered an important part of a future green Europe. However, little is known about travelers' preferences for night trains for long-distance travel in Europe. The results of an integrated choice and latent variable model (ICLV) applied to stated preference (SP) data collected from 1691 residents of Sweden show that, depending on place of origin in Sweden, in response to a set of innovations, including reduced travel time emanating from ongoing infrastructure investments, and the introduction of new, more comfortable trains, the share of plane users willing to switch to night trains to Central Europe could reach 20–30% and to Southern Europe, 6–10%. • We investigate people's willingness to switch from airplanes to night trains. • A stated preference (SP) experiment has been conducted to investigate preferences. • A set of innovations will affect the probability of choosing night trains. • Night trains could increase the sustainability of long-distance travel in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study analyses the relationships between materialistic values, environmental concerns, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in a sample of 1004 Swedish residents. The previously established material values scale (MVS) is employed along with detailed measurements of the respondents' GHG emissions from travel behaviour, residential energy use, diet, and other consumption. The developed structural model reveals a weak but significant association between high MVS scores on the one hand and low environmental concern and high GHG emissions on the other hand. In further analysis, however, the correlation between high MVS scores and high GHG emissions is shown to be traceable to the domain of air travel in the first place, with no correlation found, for example, between MVS scores and size of accommodation and spending on cars, both traditional status commodities. Instead of possessions, the status-oriented materialists in the sample thus appeared to focus more on other aspects of their lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Substitution between energy and CO2 intensive materials is a potentially important climate mitigation strategy. We compare buildings with concrete frames and wooden frames concerning their life-time carbon dioxide emissions as well as their total material, energy and carbon dioxide costs. By using consistent energy systems scenarios meeting stringent targets for atmospheric CO2 concentrations we investigate the impact of higher energy and carbon dioxide prices as well as of the availability of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. We find that wooden frames cause lower carbon dioxide emissions given the prevailing energy system, but concrete frames obtain about the same emissions as the wood frame in a system where CCS is not used for wood incineration in the demolishing phase. The net present costs for the different buildings are also affected by the future energy supply system, even though the impact is small, especially compared to the total construction cost. We conclude that it is unclear whether wood framed buildings will be a cost-effective carbon mitigation option and that further analyses of costs should be performed before prescriptive materials policies are enforced in the buildings sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]