Abstract:

Motivated by the growing awareness of the importance of understanding and promoting a low-carbon future among young people, but at the same time by the remarkably underrepresented research in this area, this paper aims to explore the factors that determine students’ intentions toward low-carbon behavior. To that end, data from Croatian university students collected via a computer-assisted web interviewing survey in April and March 2021 was analyzed using hierarchical regression analysis. Three steps of the regression analysis revealed that personal attitudes, normative beliefs, and the perceived behavioral control have consistent predictive power for students’ intentions toward low-carbon behavior. However, the carbon footprint awareness, incentives for low-carbon behavior, and the perceived behavioral control appear to be the strongest predictors of students’ intentions to engage in low-carbon behavior. The study results confirm the importance of the pro-environmental theory of planned behavior in explaining low-carbon behavior among students in general and point to the need for its extension.