Using social media audience data to analyse the drivers of low-carbon diets

Eker, S. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2264-132X, Garcia, D., Valin, H. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0618-773X, & van Ruijven, B. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1232-5892 (2021). Using social media audience data to analyse the drivers of low-carbon diets. Environmental Research Letters 16 (7) 074001. 10.1088/1748-9326/abf770.

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Project: Next generation of AdVanced InteGrated Assessment modelling to support climaTE policy making (NAVIGATE, H2020 821124)

Abstract

Low-carbon lifestyles are key to climate change mitigation, biodiversity conservation, and keeping the Earth in a safe operating space. Understanding the global feasibility and drivers of low-carbon lifestyles requires large scale data covering various countries, demographic and socioeconomic groups. In this study, we use the audience segmentation data from Facebook's advertising platform to analyse the extent and drivers of interest in sustainable lifestyles, plant-based diets in particular, at a global level. We show that formal education level is the most important factor affecting vegetarianism interest, and it creates a sharper difference in low-income countries. Gender is a strong distinguishing factor, followed by national gross domestic product per capita and age. These findings enable upscaling local empirical studies to a global level with confidence for integrated assessments of low-carbon lifestyles. Future studies can expand this analysis of social media audience data to other consumption areas, such as household energy demand, and can also contribute to quantifying the psychosocial drivers of low-carbon lifestyles, such as personal and social norms.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: climate change mitigation, demand, low-carbon diets, sustainable diets, Facebook, behaviour, social media data
Research Programs: Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR)
Biodiversity and Natural Resources (BNR) > Integrated Biosphere Futures (IBF)
Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE)
Energy, Climate, and Environment (ECE) > Sustainable Service Systems (S3)
Related URLs:
Depositing User: Michaela Rossini
Date Deposited: 22 Jun 2021 13:26
Last Modified: 27 Aug 2021 17:34
URI: https://pure.iiasa.ac.at/17280

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