Socioeconomic effects of reducing household carbon footprints through meat consumption taxes

Beef and sheep products represent the largest emitters of greenhouse gases within the meat group. One way of encouraging Scottish households to substitute into purchasing lower carbon footprint meat products such as chicken is through a carbon consumption tax. In this paper, the effects of such a tax were studied using a dynamic per capita error correction version of the almost ideal demand system (AIDS). The data used in the analysis were from a Scottish household panel dataset for the years 2006-2011, which allowed disaggregation by three socioeconomic groups. The results suggest that the net application of meat taxes is likely to reduce demand for beef and sheep products irrespective of socioeconomic group. Application of all meat carbon consumption taxes has the potential to reduce household demand for meat products, resulting in a likely 10.5% reduction in Scottish meat emissions.