A tax on meat? Is it politically feasible?
Short description
The consumption of animal products (meat and dairy) is not considered compatible with environmental objectives. People’s choice of diet is strongly linked to culture and identity and we can therefore not expect meat consumption to decrease through voluntary efforts, which increases the demand for political solution. However, we know that state intervention in the for of, for example, CO2 taxes, faces strong resistance in many contexts. In this project, we focus on environmental policy instruments in the food sector, which today is an almost unexplored field. More specifically we study how countries’ food culture and level of corruption affect the acceptance of environmental policy instruments in the food sector. The overall goal of the project is to investigate and understand the interaction between context and individual factors for acceptance.
Researchers
- Niklas Harring, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
- Sverker C. Jagers, Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Gothenburg.
- Simon Matti, Professor, Department of Social Sciences, Technology and Arts, Luleå University of Technology,
- Thomas Sterner, Professor, Department of Economics, University of Gothenburg.
Reports
Röös, E., Larsson, J., Resare Sahlin, K., Jonell, M., Lindahl, T., André, E., Säll, S., Harring, N., & M. Persson (2021). Policy Options for Sustainable Food Consumption: Review and Recommendations for Sweden. Mistra Sustainable Consumption report 1:10, Chalmers University of Technology.
Röös, E., Larsson, J., Resare Sahlin, K., Jonell, M., Lindahl, T., André, E., Säll, S., Harring, N., & M. Persson (2020). Styrmedel för hållbar matkonsumtion – en kunskapsöversikt och vägar framåt. SLU Future Food Reports 13.
Debate articles
När miljön blir del av ett kulturkrig förlorar vi alla. Göteborgs-Posten, 19 augusti 2022.
Om politikerna vågar kan de hjälpa oss att äta rätt. Dagens Nyheter, 16 juni 2020.
Stat och kommun kan spela en större roll för vår matkultur. Dagens Nyheter, 26 juni 2020.
Media participation
Behöver vi ändra vårt beteende. Sveriges Television: Klimathoppet, 18 april 2023.
Trots forskning – inga förslag för minskad kött och mjölkkonsumtion. Sveriges Radio: Studio Ett, 9 mars 2023.
Klimatfrågan allt viktigare för Sverigedemokraterna. Sveriges Radio: Godmorgon världen, 11 december 2022.
Book chapter
Harring, N. (2020). Vad anser svenskarna om en klimatskatt på nötkött?. I Ulrika Andersson, Anders Carlander & Patrik Öhberg (ed.) Regntunga skyar. Göteborgs universitet: SOM-institutet.
Conference presentations
How Ideology Affects Individual Attitudes to a Climate-Motivated Tax on Meat. Niklas Harring, Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, Midwest Political Science Association Conference, 13-16 April 2023, Chicago.
Factors affecting public acceptance of a climate change-motivated tax on meat. Niklas Harring, Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, ACT Sustainable Research Conference 16-18 November 2022, University of Gothenburg/Chalmers University of Technology.
How Ideology Affects Individual Attitudes to a Climate-Motivated Tax on Meat. Niklas Harring, Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti på Annual conference of the Swedish Political Science Association, Örebro University 28-30 September 2022.
Acceptability for food consumption policies: The public debate in online social forums. Anna Bendz, Niklas Harring, Felix Bäckstedt på 15th Nordic Environmental Social Science Conference, Gothenburg, 7-9 June 2022.
Is a climate tax on meat politically feasible? Niklas Harring, Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, the 14th European Consortium for Political Research, 2020, Panel ‘Green’ public = ‘green’ policies or vice versa?.
Is a climate tax on meat politically feasible? Niklas Harring, Sverker C. Jagers & Simon Matti, Building sustainable food systems and healthy nutrition patterns, Act Sustainable Research Conference on November 18-19, 2020.
Workshops
Mistra Sustainable Consumption/ CeCAR Workshop. February 7-9, 2023, Nääs, with participants, Oxford University, Aarhus University, University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Beijer Institute, Göteborgs kommun, European Institute on Economics and the Environment.
Workshop on policy for sustainable food consumption. March 10, 2020, Gothenburg with researchers and policy experts from University of Gothenburg, Chalmers University of Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Stockholm Resilience Centre, Beijer Institute, Göteborgs kommun, Royal Institute of Technology, Karolinska institutet, Luleå University of Technology, IVL – Swedish Environmental Research Institute, Public Health Agency of Sweden, Lund University, and Swedish Food Agency.