The gender gap in carbon footprints: determinants and implications

Understanding the distribution of carbon footprints across population groups is crucial for designing fair and acceptable climate policies. Using granular consumption data from France, we quantify the gender gap in carbon footprints related to food and transport and investigate its underlying drivers. We show that women emit 26% less carbon than men in these two sectors, which together account for half of the average individual carbon footprint. Socioeconomic factors, biological differences and gender differences in distances traveled explain part of the gap, but up to 38% remains unexplained. Red meat and car — high-emission goods often associated with male identity — account for most of the residual, highlighting the role of gender differences in preferences in shaping disparities in carbon footprints.