Post-materialism = Pro-environmentalism?

Abstract: According to Ronald Inglehart, level of individual’s environmental concern is linked with grade of post-materialism resulting from physical and economic security experienced. As post-materialist individuals are considered to prioritize environmental protection over economic benefit, this study raises a question whether this change in values can provide a long-lasting solution for environmental challenges human kind is facing in the near future? This study uses quantitative research method to investigate whether variation in carbon emissions between the member states of European Union can be explained by the level of post-materialism among the public. Three ordinary least squares regression models are constructed in order to answer the main research question and sub-question analysing if post-materialism is leading to increased amount of environmental everyday actions and further to lower carbon emissions. The concluding results indicate that although there is no overall effect of post-materialism on carbon emissions, post-materialist values do have an impact on environmental actions at individual level. Furthermore, a share of highly educated citizens seems to be negatively correlated with the amount of CO2 emissions throughout the analysis, suggesting that increasing the educational level may benefit efforts to reduce carbon emissions caused by member states of European Union.