Whether human development index, life satisfaction, and the changing structure of household consumption could reduce...

In pursuing sustainable consumption, it is important to guarantee well-being while minimising environmental impact. Therefore, in the context of rising expenditure and the pursuit of higher life satisfaction and Human Development Index (HDI) levels, it is essential to analyse whether climate change mitigation and sustainable consumption goals can be achieved simultaneously. The aim of this paper is to examine the impact of HDI, life satisfaction, household expenditure, and its distribution across consumption categories on consumption-based carbon footprint in European Union countries. The data for the empirical research cover the EU-27 countries over the period from 2015 to 2022. The results showed that the N-shaped relationship is the most suitable model for the relationship between HDI and consumption-based carbon footprint. Household expenditure is positively and statistically significantly related to the consumption-based carbon footprint, and a high level of life satisfaction is associated with household expenditure that results in a lower consumption-based carbon footprint. Considering the separate share of household expenditure, a significant moderating effect was observed only in the cases of luxuries and the health, education, and information categories. Therefore, this study demonstrates that in developed countries, the environmental impact of consumption may decrease as life satisfaction increases, resulting from a shift in spending towards less polluting consumption categories.