A study of the environmental economic effect on implementing subsidies on alternatives to red meat

Sammanfattning: The rapidly increasing trend in meat consumption causes a great challenge for policy makers. With 20% of the individual’s total emissions originating in food consumption, this gives an area of opportunity in decreasing emissions through promoting dietary changes. This study investigates the effects on greenhouse gas emissions and net costs of subsidizing less emitting alternatives to red meat. A regression model is applied, attaining own-price and cross-price elasticities on which the rest of the calculations are based. It is found that cheese and chicken are counterproductive to the aim of decreasing emissions. The best result on emissions is found when subsidizing only seafood and eggs, while cutting the net costs in half. However, the small effect on emissions does not justify the costs of implementing the subsidy. We therefore suggest a combination with a tax on more emission intense goods.