Approaching the Limits: The environmental load of Norwegian leisure consumption

Abstract

Through the participation in leisure activities, people consume goods and services that impact the environment. The emission of greenhouse gas emissions constitutes a large part of these impacts, but official inventories do not adequately reflect the actual emissions from consumption. The singular focus on emissions has led to a policy aimed at electrification. While this may lower emissions, it may well be detrimental for other environmental aspects, such as the loss of ecosystem services. This thesis investigates the environmental load of holiday trips by air, IT and internet-based recreation and outdoor recreation in Norway. Energy consumption is used as a proxy for the environmental load, as a low-energy society is also a low-emissions society with low environmental impact. The thesis makes three points: First, the environmental load from the three selected activities is considerable. Second, Norwegian consumers do change behaviour, and the emergence of the internet has caused a shift that appears beneficial to the environmental load. Norwegians’ consumption within the three selected categories appear to have reached a limit, where time is the main constraint. Third, transportation and equipment purchases contribute the most to the environmental load. I then conclude with recommendations on policy and research