Gender emissions gap: Rich white men’s jobs, diets and hobbies found to be ‘bad for the planet’
Euronews.com • • world
Key Points:
- A new international study published in Norma: International Journal for Masculinity Studies links masculine behaviors to higher environmental impact, highlighting men's greater carbon footprint, especially in travel, transportation, tourism, and meat consumption.
- Research shows men emit significantly more greenhouse gases than women, with a 2025 French study finding men produce 26% more pollution from transport and food than women.
- Men are generally less concerned about climate change, less active in environmental politics, and more resistant to adopting eco-friendly practices, particularly those experiencing "masculinity stress" who avoid pro-environmental behaviors to maintain traditional masculine images.
- Men disproportionately control high-impact industries such as agriculture, extractive industries, and militarism, contributing to environmental degradation, with elite white Eurowestern men identified as particularly damaging compared to low-income men in the global south.
- Despite these trends, the study acknowledges that many men worldwide are actively working to address and change harmful environmental behaviors.
