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Climate change has become a pressing issue in the world and India is one of the major contributors to overall climate change. Food sector in India contributes 18% to the total GHG emissions and so, these food related emissions need to be reduced in order to achieve the SDG – 13 and targets set under the recently ratified Paris agreement. Carbon labelling of food products is being considered as one of the measures to do the same. However, consumer responses to carbon labels have never been studied in India. So, in this study a carbon label was designed and a real life experiment was conducted in a university canteen in two phases – a reference phase (before label implementation) and a label phase (after label implementation). Data regarding the demographic characteristics of the consumers was also collected since they were previously found to have an impact on the consumption behaviour. Quantitative data was collected in both the phases via brief questionnaires. Qualitative data was collected via focus group discussion. Binomial and multinomial logistic regression was run to find the effect of these demographic variables on the odds of a person switching to a low carbon meal. It was observed that after information provision through labels and posters, 30% individuals changed their consumption behaviour in favour of low carbon meals. More females were found to change their consumption behaviour as compared to men and non-vegetarian eaters were found to be less reluctant to change their behaviour as compared to vegetarians. According to the focus group discussion, people were noticing, understanding and discussing the carbon labels but the information provided by the label made a very small proportion of individuals actually switch their food choices in favour of a low carbon meal.
Key words: Climate Change, GHG Emissions, Agriculture, Carbon Label, Carbon Footprint, Demographic Variables, Attitude-Behaviour Gap.
