Abstract Background Carbon labelling is promoted as a demand‐side tool to shift consumer food choices toward lower‐emission options, but its impact on consumer choice remains unclear, particularly when competing with price, brand and other product attributes. This study examines consumer perceptions and attitudes toward carbon labelling in fresh milk. It offers an integrated assessment of carbon labelling by jointly modelling label format effects and consumer heterogeneity across informational (label knowledge and trust), attitudinal (environmental concern) and demographic (gender, age, education, income) dimensions within a discrete choice experiment of 510 UK consumers, analysed using conditional logit models. Results The results show that familiar brands significantly increase the likelihood of fresh milk selection, while price has a strong negative effect, indicating that sustainability cues compete with strong cost‐based considerations. Numeric carbon labels reduce choice probability, while hybrid labels have no significant average effect. Segmented analysis shows that responses to carbon labels depend on consumer awareness, trust and environmental concern. Positive willingness to pay for carbon‐labelled milk is observed among consumers with high label knowledge (£0.21), high trust (£0.17 for hybrid labels), or strong environmental concern (£0.11–£0.20), while other groups assign negative values. Demographic patterns indicate that younger, higher‐income and higher‐educated consumers show more favourable responses, particularly toward hybrid labels. Conclusion The findings indicate that current carbon‐labelling approaches are unlikely to shift behaviour at scale without complementary measures. Policy should prioritise improving label comprehension and credibility and target interventions toward consumer segments with low awareness and trust, where resistance to carbon information is strongest.
Li et al. (Wed,) studied this question.