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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]

Air travel has received increasing attention in the climate debate in recent years. Current climate policy in this sector remains weak in comparison to, for example, the road transport sector. In this study, we analyze public support for seven different national policy measures that have been chosen to reflect the main thinking raised in the debate. Using original data from Sweden (N = 4500), we found that less coercive measures, as well as regulatory measures targeting the aviation industry rather than individuals directly, are more readily supported by the public than market-based policies aiming to push individuals away from air travel. The analyses of the different policy measures reveal many similarities between them. Climate concern, a personal norm to act in a more climate-friendly way, a political orientation to the left and high levels of institutional trust all display strong associations with support for all the different policy types. Perceptions of fairness, in particular, and effectiveness were strongly associated with overall policy support. Interestingly, however, the extent to which a policy measure was expected to affect one's own personal freedom was found to have a very weak correlation with policy support. Key policy insights Public support was higher for 'pull' policies (climate labelling and subsidies for high-speed and night trains), as well as for regulatory measures targeting the aviation industry (biofuel blending mandate), than for policies that aim to push individuals away from air travel (e.g. air passenger tax). The weakest public support was found for frequent flyer taxation and personal carbon allowances. One reason, however, may be that these are novel policy options where the respondents had little prior information. In line with previous research, climate concern, ideology and trust in institutions correlate with attitudes to aviation polices, but the multivariate model showed that perceptions of whether a policy is fair and effective were by far the most important variables. Hence, fairness and effectiveness appear to be crucial aspects for the design of new policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The direct rebound effect for private car transport was estimated by following a large sample of Swedish households (28,876) that acquired a new car in 2009. For some households, this resulted in an improvement in fuel efficiency, whereas others acquired a less or similarly fuel efficient car. The households' travel distances were measured and analysed for a period of 3 years before and 3 years after the car was replaced. This approach differs from previous econometric analyses in which fleet-average changes in distance travelled were studied, often using fluctuations in fuel cost as a proxy for changes in fuel efficiency. No significant bivariate relationship was found between changes in fuel efficiency and annual distance travelled but a multivariate analysis that also included changes in income, number of cars in the household, car weight and car power, resulted in a significant rebound effect of 24 %. Households who bought a car that was labelled 'green' did not exhibit any rebound effect, while households who bought a 'normal' car displayed a rebound effect of 32 %. This could indicate that households that buy a car with improved fuel efficiency for environmental reasons also avoid the economically induced rebound effect. The analysis did not indicate any significant differences in the rebound effect between different socio-demographic groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a method for quantifying the energy efficiency gap ex ante. To do this, we define the energy efficiency gap as being the difference between the ex ante market and techno-economic energy savings potentials. The estimation of market potential is based on top-down (econometric) modelling of energy demand using data from the period 1970-2005. The techno-economic estimates are made using a bottom-up building stock model (ECCABS) to assess the effects and cost-efficiency of various energy efficiency measures. Common to these two modelling approaches are two scenarios of energy prices, which differ only with respect to the carbon tax component. We implement the method for the case of useful energy demand for space and water heating in the Swedish residential sector up to 2030. In comparison to the level of energy use in 2005 (74 TWh), the top-down model predicts for 2030 reductions in demand for the two price scenarios of 17 and 21 TWh respectively. The bottom-up model predicts corresponding reductions in demand of 25 and 31 TWh respectively. Thus, there is an energy efficiency gap calculated of at least 8 TWh in 2030. An implicit discount rate of 10 % would render the results from the bottom-up modelling identical to those from the top-down modelling. The presence of the energy efficiency gap indicates that there is a need for enhanced policies in order to make future reductions in energy demand reach the levels predicted by the bottom-up modelling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the contemporary discussion on society's transformation towards long-term climate targets, it is often implicitly assumed that behavioral changes, unlike technological changes, would lead to reductions in human well-being. However, this assumption has been questioned by researchers, who instead argue that people may live better lives by consuming less and reduce their environmental impact in the process. In this study we explore the relationship between greenhouse gas emissions and subjective well-being, using a sample of 1000 Swedish respondents. Our results show that there is no strong link between an individual's emissions and subjective wellbeing. We also analyze the relationship between specific emission-intensive activities and subjective well-being and find that none of the activities examined correlates with subjective well-being. Finally, we explore a hypothesis put forward in the literature, suggesting that a poor work-life balance, long commuting distances, and materialistic values may decrease individuals' subjective well-being and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Our results indicate that materialistic values do correlate with lower levels of well-being and to some extent also with higher greenhouse gas emissions. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The relationships between consumption, energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from Swedish households are analysed using both cross-sectional multivariate regressions and a decomposition analysis of GHG emissions between 1993 and 2006 into underlying trends. The analyses cover 104 consumption categories and include both direct and indirect energy use. The results from the cross-sectional analysis confirm previous results from other countries showing that total expenditures is by far the most important determinant of households' energy use and GHG emissions with expenditure elasticities of 0.77 and 0.85, respectively. Households living in single-family houses were also found to cause higher total energy demand than households living in apartments. Age also showed a positive relationship with both total energy use and emissions, while the level of education had a low significance. The decomposition analysis showed that improvements in technical energy efficiency over time had twice as large impact on energy use as the change in composition of consumption. When the effect of energy efficiency improvements was deducted from the energy trend, the relationship between total expenditures and energy use was found to be similar to the cross-sectional relationship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Changes in travel behaviour are needed to tackle the climate impact associated with long-distance flights, including a switch to sustainable transport modes. In this paper, we analyse scenarios of carbon footprint reduction associated with a switch from flights to night trains for holidays in Europe for the case of Sweden, including outbound, inbound and domestic tourism. We use a prospective lifecycle assessment framework combined with results from a stated preference experiment to determine the impact of future mode shift behaviours. Our results indicate that a mode shift could be triggered by progressive night train policies resulting in (i) fewer transfers and (ii) price levels similar to those of flights. The shifts from flights to night trains could result in 9% lower cumulative carbon footprint in relation to a baseline travel demand scenario for the period 2025–2050. Decarbonization of long-distance travel in line with the Paris Agreement would likely require a combination of many different types of measures including a shift to low-carbon fuels. • We investigate potential emissions abatement by night trains replacing flights. • Trains could reach 22–30% of the combined market for tourism by flights and trains. • Shift to night train could reduce emissions from long-distance travel by 9%. • Decarbonization has a larger impact on carbon footprints than mode shifting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Swedish air travel per capita need to be reduced by 38–59% to meet climate targets. • The effect on air travel by a high-speed rail network in Northern Europe is modest. • Mixed modes, combining rail and air, may give significant emission reductions. • The main aviation low-carbon fuels alternatives are analysed. In many industrialised countries, the climate impact from long-distance travel is greater than that from short-distance travel. In this paper, we present five scenarios for long-distance travel in 2060, which are consistent with a 67% probability of limiting global warming to 1.8 degrees. The scenarios concern travel by the Swedish population, but per capita travel volume and fuel use could be generalised globally. A key result is that all scenarios require reductions in Swedish per capita air travel in the range of 38–59% compared to 2017. The direct effect on air travel of implementing a high-speed rail network in Sweden and Northern Europe was found to be modest. A higher emission reduction could be achieved if mixed mode trips comprising rail and air legs were more widely adopted. Finally, the pros and cons of future aviation fuels are discussed, the main candidates being biofuel, electrofuel, and liquid hydrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]