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The potential of behavioural change for climate change mitigation: a case study for the European Union

Authors:
Dirk-Jan van de Ven at BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change
Dirk-Jan van de Ven
Mikel González-Eguino at BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change
Mikel González-Eguino
Iñaki Arto at BC3-Basque Centre for Climate Change
Iñaki Arto
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Mainstream literature on climate change concentrates overwhelmingly on technological solutions for this global long-term problem, while a change towards climate-friendly behaviour could play a role in emission reduction and has received little attention. This paper focuses on the potential climate mitigation by behavioural change in the European Union (EU) covering many behavioural options in food, mobility and housing demand which do not require any personal up-front investment. We use the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), capturing both their direct and indirect implications in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Our results indicate that modest to rigorous behavioural change could reduce per capita footprint emissions by 6 to 16%, out of which one fourth will take place outside the EU, predominantly by reducing land use change. The domestic emission savings would contribute to reduce the costs of achieving the internationally agreed climate goal of the EU by 13.5 to 30%. Moreover, many of these options would also yield co-benefits such as monetary savings, positive health impacts or animal wellbeing. These results imply the need for policymakers to focus on climate education and awareness programs more seriously and strategically, making use of the multiple co-benefits related with adopting pro-environmental behaviour. Apart from that, the relevance of behavioural change in climate change mitigation implies that policy-informing models on climate change should include behavioural change as a complement or partial alternative to technological change.
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The potential of behavioural change for climate change
mitigation: a case study for the European Union
Dirk-Jan van de Ven
1
&Mikel González-Eguino
1,2
&
Iñaki Arto
1
Received: 29 May 2017 /Accepted: 1 September 2017 /Published online: 20 September 2017
#Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2017
Abstract Mainstream literature on climate change concentrates overwhelmingly on techno-
logical solutions for this global long-term problem, while a change towards climate-friendly
behaviour could play a role in emission reduction and has received little attention. This paper
focuses on the potential climate mitigation by behavioural change in the European Union (EU)
covering many behavioural options in food, mobility and housing demand which do not
require any personal up-front investment. We use the Global Change Assessment Model
(GCAM), capturing both their direct and indirect implications in terms of greenhouse gas
emissions. Our results indicate that modest to rigorous behavioural change could reduce per
capita footprint emissions by 6 to 16%, out of which one fourth will take place outside the EU,
predominantly by reducing land use change. The domestic emission savings would contribute
to reduce the costs of achieving the internationally agreed climate goal of the EU by 13.5 to
30%. Moreover, many of these options would also yield co-benefits such as monetary savings,
positive health impacts or animal wellbeing. These results imply the need for policymakers to
focus on climate education and awareness programs more seriously and strategically, making
use of the multiple co-benefits related with adopting pro-environmental behaviour. Apart from
that, the relevance of behavioural change in climate change mitigation implies that policy-
informing models on climate change should include behavioural change as a complement or
partial alternative to technological change.
Keywords Climatechange .Mitigation.Behavioural change .Diet change .Mobility.Land-use
change .Waste recycling .Policy costs .Footprint emissions
Mitig Adapt Strateg Glob Change (2018) 23:853–886
DOI 10.1007/s11027-017-9763-y
*Dirk-Jan van de Ven
dj.vandeven@bc3research.org
1
Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Edificio Sede 1-1, Parque Científico de UPV/EHU, Barrio
Sarriena s/n, 48940 Leioa, Spain
2
University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), Leioa, Spain
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... Quantitative studies have explored the GHG emissions reduction potential of direct policies of cars use reduction [6], ride sharing [7], the increase of car occupancy [8], and car population control [9], as well as measures that affect total transport demand by focusing on reducing the number of annual kilometres of vehicle use [10,11]. Last, a series of studies focuses on the relationship between teleworking and transport behaviour which is mediated by external factors (e.g. the Corona crisis [12]) by climate policies [3,11,13] or by individual motivations to change behaviour [14]. Equally, studies have attempted to quantify the transport-related emission reductions of behavioural changes regarding the purchase of goods and services such as online shopping [15,16], and regarding leisure, such as a reduction of leisure trips [15] and transatlantic flights [17] or even more restrictive measures that eliminate all air transport services [6]. ...
... Equally, studies have attempted to quantify the transport-related emission reductions of behavioural changes regarding the purchase of goods and services such as online shopping [15,16], and regarding leisure, such as a reduction of leisure trips [15] and transatlantic flights [17] or even more restrictive measures that eliminate all air transport services [6]. Last, studies have investigated the impacts of carpooling and tip-chaining on GHG direct emissions [18], energy savings [19] and distance traveled [20], as well as the impacts of carpooling/carsharing on GHG direct emissions [13] and energy consumption [21], Measures that fall within the Shift category focus on the shift from a less efficient mode of transport to a more efficient one in terms of environmental impact. Policies that have been quantified include a shift of 15 % of overall passenger transport demand to urban transport [11], shifting short-haul air travel to train [15], increasing active modes of transport (walking or cycling) [8,11], or shifting the entire car consumption to other modes of transport [17]. ...
... Further measures whose impacts on energy use and GHG emission reductions have been quantified include the change to new technologies and alternative fuels, such as changing from gasoline to electric motorcycles with [24], from gasoline to hybrid cars [17], and the shift to fuel efficient vehicles [18]. Changes in the driving mode, while keeping the same vehicle, also allow improvements in energy efficiency, e.g. a fuel-efficient driving style [3,19], which also referred to as eco-driving [13,14]. It has been shown that even fostering proper vehicle maintenance generates sustained energy reductions [19]. ...
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... However, for meat consumption, the graph reveals sufficiency assumptions about strong dietary changes in Europe from about 322-387 kcal meat/cap/day in 2015 to 0-260 kcal meat/cap/day in the scenario year. Van de Ven et al [48] model a meat-free scenario. ADEME [39] and UBA [47] are also very ambitious with −84% and −80% respectively, and as ambitious as DLS (62 kcal/cap/day, [15]). ...
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