Work

The carbon intensity of well-being and presidential politics in the United States, 1960–2023

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The carbon intensity of well-being (CIWB) captures the amount of stress that societies place on the environment to produce human well-being. This Brief Report provides a description of the CIWB in the United States from 1960 to 2023 and analyzes how it changed during Republican and Democratic presidencies. Results show that after rising in the 1960s, the CIWB in the United States has declined, though the rate of decline varies. Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) models show that transitions to Democratic administrations are associated with around a 1% decline in CIWB after one year. This effect is small but statistically significant, suggesting that the American president does have an influence on CIWB but that more work is needed by presidential administrations to reduce CIWB in the long run.

Source: Sustainability Science Practice and Policy

DOI: 10.1080/15487733.2025.2549817

Author: Michael D. Briscoe

Institution: Colorado State University Pueblo

Language: English

Topic: Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy

Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

SDG: Climate action

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $778