Open Access

Yvonne Stirjan

• Global warming provokes our climate and the world how we know it today to change severely. The production of food together with its consumption is responsible for 19-29% of world’s greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities and further rises are expected. As a response to this phenomenon, the assessment of a product’s carbon footprint has awaken huge interest with the purpose of controlling food’s environmental impact during its life-cycle. In order to involve individuals in the target of reducing harmful emissions, besides governmental and business efforts, CO2 labels have been developed to communicate a product’s carbon footprint and enabling consumers to make more climate-friendly purchase decisions. However, it has been shown that a successful implementation of CO2 labels on grocery products still confronts barriers from the consumer side. For a better understanding of the meaning of mentioned labels, this thesis deepens the theoretical backgrounds of greenhouse gas emissions and the carbon footprint related to the food industry. In a second step, the acceptance and effectiveness of carbon labels on groceries will be analysed critically by using contextual literature reviews and a case study on German purchase behaviour.