University graduates cause more CO2 emissions than those without a degree, research shows

Research from a University professor in the Netherlands has revealed that individuals who enaged in higher education contribute more to CO2 emissions than those who decided against it.

Dr Robert Dorschel, of Tilburg University, has published research today which analysed data on 12,763 people in 5,473 households in the UK who were asked to complete a diary of their activities for 14 days, from which an estimate of their yearly emissions was made.

Following this, Dr Dorschel, who is also a research associate of the University of Cambridge, examined data from individuals who were middle-class, which is defined by someone who earns between 0.7 and 2.5 times the average pay, and divided them into groups who did and did not have a degree.

He discovered that people with a degree produced 9.76 tonnes of CO2 a year and those without contributed 9.49. Dr Dorschel has suggested that the increase could be caused by the amount of extra travel university students complete getting to and from classes.

In contrast, the lower-class people involved in the survey – individuals who earn less than 0.7 times the average income – produced 6.63 tonnes a year and were, overall, the most eco-friendly group.

Speaking at the British Sociological Association’s annual conference in Manchester today, Dr Dorschel said ‘that even though their emissions are just as high or even higher, middle-class graduates reap the growing symbolic profit that comes with a presentation of the self as eco-friendly.

‘But the distinction between them and middle-class non-graduates, as well as the lower class, must ultimately be considered as symbolic only.’

Alongside this, looking at the research more closely, data shows that middle-class graduates produced less CO2 for their housing than middle-class non-graduates, but more for their travel and other mobility and consumption.

Dr Dorschel said that middle-class graduates moved around frequently for their careers, were more likely to work in cities than the countryside (where CO2 emissions are worse off), and tended to work in the knowledge economy and support centre and left wing parties.

Non-graduate middle-class people tended to be rooted in the region they were born in, lived in smaller towns and rural habitats and worked in traditional industry jobs, mid-level office and service occupations or in independent craftmanship.

Image: Brett Jordan