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Engaging high-income earners in climate action: Policy insights from survey experiments
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There has been a recent proliferation of research and practice on the interior dimensions of sustainability, such as values, beliefs, worldviews and inner capacities. This nascent field of inner transformation is dynamic and emerging, with varied terminology, a breadth of applications, and intense debate about possible contributions as well as limitations and shortcomings. In this article, we aim to provide some orientation by systematising the core contributions of the emerging domain of inner transformation research via the acronym IMAGINE. We show that ontologically, inner transformation research highlights (i) the Interdependence of inner/outer and individual/collective/system phenomena, as well as (ii) the Multiple potential that is latent within each of us to enable transformative change. Correspondingly, it underscores the implications of inner phenomena for sustainability and related action-taking, particularly through: (iii) the Activation of inner dimensions across individual, collective and system levels, and (iv) the Generation of inner transformative capacities through intentional practices. Epistemologically, this necessitates the (v) INclusion of diverse perspectives, required for (vi) Expanding knowledge systems for sustainability. The presented heuristic offers a framework to systematically support and guide sustainability researchers, educators and practitioners to incorporate inner transformation into their work, which is a key requirement for sustainability outcomes and necessary to effectively formulate related policy frameworks.
This paper explores the application of message framing as a management practice to promote change in employee behaviour for corporate sustainability. We conduct a field experiment in a German automotive company to test the effects of three different frames (emotional, normative and gain) on pro‐environmental actions in relation to electric vehicle choices of 170 employees. The frames are applied via two communication channels: first, via emails to remind employees about ordering a new car and second, via pop‐up notifications appearing in the online system where employees complete their orders. We find that the interventions applied in emails, but not in pop‐up notifications, have significant positive effects on electric vehicle adoption. Yet, the durability of the effects is limited. Overall, gain framing in the form of cost saving information has the longest and most powerful impact on electric car choices. Our findings have implications for workplaces where employees might not yet possess strong pro‐environmental beliefs, showing that employee sustainable behaviour can be enhanced by emphasising complementary gain motives.
Consumption-based carbon footprints have been widely used to examine how different demand-side solutions can reduce the emissions from personal consumption. This study not only utilized consumption-based carbon footprints to examine how people living in affluent nations like the Nordic countries can live 1.5 degree warming compatible lifestyles, but it also expanded on this analysis by focusing on which level of GHG intensity per monetary unit of expenditure it is possible to remain below a 1.5-degree compatible target level at different levels of consumption expenditure. To analyze the GHG intensity per monetary unit of consumption, first, the consumption-based carbon footprints from around 8,000 survey responses from the Nordic countries were calculated. Then the average carbon intensity per unit of monetary spending was calculated across the income deciles in each country and compared to target levels that align with the 1.5-degree compatible reduction pathways by 2030. Finally, the intensities for selected low-carbon consumption choices (vegan/vegetarian diet, driving an EV, renewable electricity for the home, not owning a car, and no air travel) were calculated and compared to the same baseline targets. Our results showed that all of the average carbon footprints and GHG intensities were above the target levels in all of the countries. However, when comparing respondents having adopted two or more low-carbon consumption choices, there were examples of average intensities that met the target levels. The adoption rates of these low-carbon consumption choices were low though, which illustrates the necessity for high adoption rates of multiple low-carbon consumption choices in order to materialize the potential of demand-side climate change mitigation options. Our findings highlight the importance of examining the GHG intensity of per monetary unit expenditure to inform future policies on demand-side solutions and to improve the climate-literacy of consumers, so they can make more informed decisions on consumption choices.
All humans contribute to climate change but not equally. Here I estimate the global inequality of individual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between 1990 and 2019 using a newly assembled dataset of income and wealth inequality, environmental input-output tables and a framework differentiating emissions from consumption and investments. In my benchmark estimates, I find that the bottom 50% of the world population emitted 12% of global emissions in 2019, whereas the top 10% emitted 48% of the total. Since 1990, the bottom 50% of the world population has been responsible for only 16% of all emissions growth, whereas the top 1% has been responsible for 23% of the total. While per-capita emissions of the global top 1% increased since 1990, emissions from low- and middle-income groups within rich countries declined. Contrary to the situation in 1990, 63% of the global inequality in individual emissions is now due to a gap between low and high emitters within countries rather than between countries. Finally, the bulk of total emissions from the global top 1% of the world population comes from their investments rather than from their consumption. These findings have implications for contemporary debates on fair climate policies and stress the need for governments to develop better data on individual emissions to monitor progress towards sustainable lifestyles.
Responding effectively to climate change requires an understanding of what shapes people’s individual and collective sense of agency and responsibility towards the future. It also requires transforming this understanding into political engagement to support systems change. Based on a national representative survey in Sweden (N = 1,237), this research uses the novel SenseMaker methodology to look into these matters. More specifically, in order to understand the social and institutional prerequisites that must be in place to develop inclusive climate responses, we investigate how citizens perceive their everyday life and future, and the implications for their sense of responsibility, agency, and political engagement. Our research findings show how citizens perceive and act on climate change (individually, cooperatively, and by supporting others), their underlying values, beliefs, emotions and paradigms, inter-group variations, and obstacles and enablers for change. The findings reveal that, in general, individual and public climate action is perceived as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare. At the same time, climate anxiety and frustration about structural and governance constraints limit agency, whilst positive emotions and inner qualities, such as human–nature connections, support both political engagement and wellbeing. Our results shed light on individual, collective, and structural capacities that must be supported to address climate change. They draw attention to the need to develop new forms of citizen involvement and of policy that can explicitly address these human interactions, inner dimensions of thinking about and acting on climate change, and the underlying social paradigms. We conclude with further research needs and policy recommendations.
Key policy insights
• In general, citizens perceive increased individual and public climate action as leading to improved (rather than reduced) wellbeing and welfare.
• Effective responses to climate change require addressing underlying social paradigms (to complement predominant external, technological, and information-based approaches).
• Such responses include increasing policy support for:
• o learning environments and practices that can help individuals to discover internalized social patterns and increase their sense of agency and interconnection (to self, others, nature);
• o institutional and political mechanisms that support citizen engagement and the systematic consideration of human inner dimensions (values, beliefs, emotions and associated inner qualities/capacities) across all sectors of work, by systematically revising organizations’ vision statements, communication and project management tools, working structures, policies, regulations, human and financial resource allocation, and collaboration; and
• o nature-based solutions and other approaches to support the human–nature connection.
Growing evidence supports the need to re-evaluate the nature and function of our economies in favour of post-growth principles if we are to have a socially and environmentally viable future. This study contributes to the discussion on how to achieve such a future by addressing a remaining gap in the literature about the public acceptance of post-growth, since a viable transition requires public support to validate political actions. Taking a mixed-methods approach, we ask which values and socio-economic characteristics are associated with support for post-growth and why. On average among 34 European countries, 60.5% of people are in favour of post-growth. Values such as environmentalism, collectivism and post-materialism were found to support post-growth visions of the future, but support for post-growth and these values is lower among disadvantaged people. We conclude that greater emphasis on redistribution and improving opportunities and livelihoods for disadvantaged people in a post-growth economy is key to making such a future more acceptable to them. However, this conflicts with policy preferences and values such as hierarchy, meritocracy, and individualism that tend to be more prominent among people who are well-off.
Dominant policy approaches have failed to generate action at anywhere near the rate, scale or depth needed to avert climate change and environmental disaster. In particular, they fail to address the need for a fundamental cultural transformation, which involves a collective shift in mindsets (values, beliefs, worldviews and associated inner human capacities). Whilst scholars and practitioners are increasingly calling for more integrative approaches, knowledge on how the link between our mind and the climate crisis can be best addressed in policy responses is still scarce. Our study addresses this gap. Based on a survey and in-depth interviews with high-level policymakers worldwide, we explore how they perceive the intersection of mind and climate change, how it is reflected in current policymaking and how it could be better considered to support transformation. Our findings show, on the one hand, that the mind is perceived as a victim of increasing climate impacts. On the other hand, it is considered a key driver of the crisis, and a barrier to action, to the detriment of both personal and planetary wellbeing. The resultant vicious cycle of mind and climate change is, however, not reflected in mainstream policymaking, which fails to generate more sustainable pathways. At the same time, there are important lessons from other fields (e.g. education, health, the workplace, policy mainstreaming) that provide insights into how to integrate aspects of mind into climate policies. Our results show that systematic integration into policymaking is a key for improving both climate resilience and climate responsiveness across individual, collective, organisational and system levels and indicate the inner human potential and capacities that support related change. We conclude with some policy recommendations and further research that is needed to move from a vicious to a virtuous cycle of mind and climate change that supports personal and planetary wellbeing.
As climate change develops reactions such as eco-anxiety, eco-guilt and ecological grief are becoming increasingly common. Our aim was to develop questionnaires to assess these psychological consequences, and to examine their relationship with pro-environmental behavior (PEB). Items of the questionnaires were generated based on literature review and the qualitative analysis of semi-structured interviews (N=17). The first item pool was administered to a large adult sample (N=4608) along with assessing PEB. The Eco-Guilt Questionnaire (EGuiQ-11) and the Ecological Grief Questionnaire (EGriQ-6) each had a one-factor structure, while the Eco-Anxiety Questionnaire (EAQ-22) consisted of two factors: habitual ecological worry and the negative consequences of eco-anxiety. The factors were positively associated with PEB. The questionnaires had a robust factor structure, and they are suitable for the assessment of a wide range of negative emotional states related to climate change and the ecological crisis. Our results indicate the possible utility of negative emotions in reinforcing PEB.
Although there are many technological solutions and policy approaches for transitioning to a fossil-free society, effective action is still lacking. We need a new way to address the issue, one that inspires and attracts the widest possible group of society. Against this background, the aim of this paper is to explore citizens' political agency in influencing transport policy, and the inner and outer factors that encourage or hinder related engagement at individual and collective levels. Based on a national survey in Sweden (N = 1,210) and a mixed-methods approach, our findings show the importance of people's perceived possibilities to influence policy and their trust in authorities when engaging and exercising political agency. They also shed light on the complex, intertwined nature of these three factors (i.e. engagement, perceived influence, trust), and the role that the perceived environmental effectiveness of low-carbon transport options, climate change awareness, sociodemocratic issues, and underlying human inner dimensions play in this context. The findings highlight the role of perceptions and emotions that are engrained at individual, cultural and structural levels. This is key, as one identified obstacle to engagement is the belief that individuals have no influence. With due limitations, our results support calls for an expanded view of political agency that goes beyond political and institutional actors, and recognises each individual's capacity to contribute to transformative change. We conclude that fostering political agency for a low-carbon transport system is a dual process of addressing both structural and personal (capacity) factors to increase individual and collective engagement, enhance perceptions of possibilities to contribute, and address trust-related issues. All of which need to be given greater consideration to transform transport and climate policy more broadly.
Urban road transport is an important source of local pollution and carbon emissions. Designing effective and fair policies tackling these externalities requires understanding who contributes to emissions today. We estimate individual transport-induced pollution footprints combining a travel demand survey from the Paris area with NOx, PM2.5 and CO2 emission factors. We find that the top 20% emitters contribute 75%–85% of emissions on a representative weekday. They combine longer distances travelled, a high car modal share and, especially for local pollutants, a higher emission intensity of car trips. Living in the suburbs, being a man and being employed are the most important characteristics associated with top emissions. Among the employed, those commuting from suburbs to suburbs, working at a factory, with atypical working hours or with a manual, shopkeeping or top executive occupation are more likely to be top emitters. Finally, policies targeting local pollution may be more regressive than those targeting CO2 emissions, due to the different correlation between income and the local pollutant vs. CO2 emission intensity of car trips.
Based on the theory of planned behavior, this paper presents a study on the core components of attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavior control, and introduces a moral emotional variable, namely environmental indebtedness, as the emotional factors in the attitude variable to explore the influencing factors and mechanism of consumer green purchase behavior. To examine the predictors of consumer green purchase behavior, data were collected from Chinese consumers and a total of 408 responses were considered valid. Through comparative analysis, it is found that environmental cognition, descriptive norm, and self-efficacy have a highly significant positive impact on green purchase intention, and self-efficacy was found the best predictor of intention. In addition to that, when environmental indebtedness, self-efficacy, controllability, and green purchase intention jointly have significant effects on green purchase behavior, environmental indebtedness has the best effect. This research offers significant contributions and provides decision-making recommendations.
Policymakers and scientists are paying increasing attention to how social norms can promote pro-environmental behaviour and sustainable energy use. We contribute to this field by experimenting with and assessing the impacts of social norms on low-carbon mobility options. Taking Sweden as a case study, we develop two complementary randomised controlled experiments to: 1) analyse the role of social norms in promoting the adoption of car sharing services (CSS) via descriptive and injunctive norms (N = 720); and 2) investigate potential crowd out effects when injunctive norms are used to promote a low-carbon transport hierarchy (N = 730). First-order effects show that social norms have a positive but marginal impact on the willingness to adopt CSS, and only injunctive norms have the potential to steer behaviour in the desired direction. Results also suggest that concerns about potential substitution effects between low-carbon transport options and CSS are not valid. With due limitations, our findings have various implications for policymaking, notably that for social norms to be effective, other policy instruments are critically needed. Of particular importance are the environmental effectiveness of CSS and complementarities between public transport and active mobility (i.e. walking and cycling).
A dietary shift from animal-based foods to plant-based foods in high-income nations could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from direct agricultural production and increase carbon sequestration if resulting spared land was restored to its antecedent natural vegetation. We estimate this double effect by simulating the adoption of the EAT–Lancet planetary health diet by 54 high-income nations representing 68% of global gross domestic product and 17% of population. Our results show that such dietary change could reduce annual agricultural production emissions of high-income nations’ diets by 61% while sequestering as much as 98.3 (55.6–143.7) GtCO2 equivalent, equal to approximately 14 years of current global agricultural emissions until natural vegetation matures. This amount could potentially fulfil high-income nations’ future sum of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) obligations under the principle of equal per capita CDR responsibilities. Linking land, food, climate and public health policy will be vital to harnessing the opportunities of a double climate dividend.
This report continues the science-based approach of linking concrete changes in lifestyles to measurable impacts on climate change in order to keep with the 1.5-degree aspirational target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The 1.5-degree lifestyles approach examines GHG emissions and reduction potentials using consumption-based accounting, which covers both direct emissions in a country and embodied emissions of imported goods while excluding emissions embodied in exported goods. It analyses lifestyle carbon footprints of ten sample countries, representing high-, middle-, and low-income countries, and identifies hotspots, or consumption domains with the highest impact on the environment.
The report also fills the knowledge gap arising from most prevailing climate scenarios that underplay the potential contributions of lifestyle changes to climate change mitigation and focus entirely or mainly on developing new technologies and on changes in production.
For each country in the report, the footprint gap between current and sustainable target levels are determined for the years 2030, 2040, and 2050. To bridge these gaps, options for reducing footprints in each country are introduced, estimating potential impacts from various adoption rates in each country. Finally, two scenarios are developed for each country, one focused on systems change and another on behaviour change, showing indicative pathways for achieving the 2030 target.
Climate change is an increasing threat to sustainable development worldwide. However, the dominant incremental policy approaches have not generated action at anywhere near the rate, scale or depth that is needed. This is largely due to the fact that climate change has historically been framed as a purely external, technical challenge. There is an urgent need for a more integral understanding that links internal and external (collective and systems) approaches to support transformation. However, related knowledge is scarce and fragmented across disciplines. This study addresses this gap. Through a systematic literature review, we analyse how the linkages between internal and external change are portrayed and understood in current research. We assess the scope, perspectives and approaches used to understand why, and how, internal change relates to climate action and sustainability. Our results highlight patterns and gaps regarding foci, conceptualisation, methods, epistemology, ontology and ethics that hamper emergent solutions and progress. Starting from the status quo, we propose an integrated model of change as an agenda and roadmap for future research, policy and practice.
People with high socioeconomic status disproportionally affect energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions directly through their consumption and indirectly through their financial and social resources. However, few climate change mitigation initiatives have targeted this population segment, and the potential of such initiatives remains insufficiently researched. In this Perspective, we analyse key characteristics of high-socioeconomic-status people and explore five roles through which they have a disproportionate impact on energy-driven greenhouse gas emissions and potentially on climate change mitigation, namely as consumers, investors, role models, organizational participants and citizens. We examine what is known about their disproportionate impact via consumption and explore their potential influence on greenhouse gas emissions through all five roles. We suggest that future research should focus on strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by high-socioeconomic-status people and to align their investments, organizational choices and actions as social and political change agents with climate change mitigation goals.
This study examines the relative importance of social norms among other motives in driving sustainable food choice. It distinguishes between injunctive and descriptive social norms, as well as between reported actual choice and intended future choice. The study uses binary logistic regression models and survey data (N=348) from five workplace restaurants in Helsinki, Finland where a novel, local and environmentally friendly dish, roach fish patties, was being launched. Workplace restaurants account for a significant share of food consumption in Finland and are a relevant context for investigating the impact of social norms as the food choice is highly observable. The study reveals that perceived descriptive norms are significantly associated with both actual and intended food choice while perceived injunctive social norms are not related to either. It also finds that in the case of actual choice, the impact of perceived descriptive norms is weaker compared to that of other motives, such as habit, visual appeal, value for money, and ability to satiate hunger. In the case of intended choice, only taste has a stronger impact than the descriptive norm. Further, the analysis situates the motives for food choice in the larger theoretical discussion of System 1 and 2 decision processes and of the impact of visceral factors on food choice, and finds that visceral-factor-related motives have a stronger impact on actual choice than on intended choice. The study shows how the role of social norms in sustainable food choice is more nuanced than presented in previous literature. It concludes that there can be scope for steering food choice towards greater sustainability through a skilled mobilization of descriptive norms.
Highlights:
-personal values and perceptions of other people's values impact climate action
-individuals relatively strongly endorse biospheric values
-strong biospheric values are associated with more climate action
-people often think others endorse biospheric values less strongly than themselves
-more accurate perceptions of each other's values may promote climate action
-removing contextual barriers enables people to act upon their biospheric values
Abstract: To mitigate anthropogenic climate change, it is important to know what motivates individuals to support and take climate action. Values reflect universal, general, desirable goals which guide individuals' preferences and actions. Stronger biospheric values (caring about the environment), in particular, predict stronger engagement in climate action. Although many individuals have strong biospheric values, contextual barriers can inhibit their climate actions. Notably, policies and contextual changes that reduce contextual barriers can motivate and enable individuals to act upon their biospheric values. In addition, public participation may better engage public values in climate policies and actions as to increase their acceptability. Lastly, correcting biases that others have weaker biospheric values than oneself may also motivate individuals to support and take climate action.
The mounting research on consumer behavior and climate change is gradually improving our understanding of effective ways to mobilize consumers to mitigate climate change. The relationship between consumer behavior and climate change is complex and most consumers are not capable of determining which behavior changes are worth doing. Research has come a long way identifying the most impactful behavior changes, but more research is needed to refine and situate these insights. The most important implication of the reviewed research is that most focus should be on making climate friendly behavior the easy behavior, in terms of securing a correct reflection of carbon footprint in prices, climate friendly products that compare favorably to unfriendly alternatives, and carbon labeling.
Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, global air transport demand was expected to triple between 2020 and 2050. The pandemic, which reduced global air travel significantly, provides an opportunity to discuss the scale, distribution and growth of aviation until 2018, also with a view to consider the climate change implications of a return to volume growth. Industry statistics, data provided by supranational organizations, and national surveys are evaluated to develop a pre-pandemic understanding of air transport demand at global, regional, national and individual scales. Results suggest that the share of the world's population travelling by air in 2018 was 11%, with at most 4% taking international flights. Data also supports that a minor share of air travelers is responsible for a large share of warming: The percentile of the most frequent fliers – at most 1% of the world population - likely accounts for more than half of the total emissions from passenger air travel. Individual users of private aircraft can contribute to emissions of up to 7,500 t CO2 per year. Findings are specifically relevant with regard to the insight that a large share of global aviation emissions is not covered by policy agreements.
Improving energy performance of the housing stock continues to be an important undertaking in the energy transition of many EU member states. However, tendencies of low-income households generally living in buildings with low energy performance pose a challenge for this transition, and cases of ‘renoviction’ and ‘green gentrification’ are becoming more and more noticed in the scientific community. More so, questions regarding the distributive justice of costs and burdens in the energy transition of the housing stock have been raised. In this paper, we approach this problem from a perspective of energy performance metrics. Although energy performance (kWh/m2, year) is generally lower in buildings inhabited by low-income households, residential density—and thus building utilisation—tends to be higher. By measuring per capita energy use instead of area-normalised energy use, we investigate if a high residential density can offset a low energy performance and change the perception of which buildings are considered energy inefficient and which are not. Results showed that by measuring per capita energy use instead of area-normalised energy use, energy inefficient buildings were found in high-income city centres instead of in low-income suburbs of Swedish cities. Moreover, there has been an unjust distribution of the imposition of the energy transition over the past decade where the residents with the initially lowest per capita energy use have carried a disproportionately high share of the energy savings. This suggests that a change of energy performance metrics could offer an approach for a more socially just and sustainable energy transition of the housing stock.
Behavioural scientists in the field of climate change communication call for a better understanding of how information provided to the public should be presented in order to be effective. The aim of this research is to connect insights from framing theory with message processing theory and regulatory focus theory to see whether public communication can effectively affect pro-environmental behavioural change. The framing types that are of interest in the current study are outcome framing and point-of-reference framing. An online, scenario-based experiment was conducted with 170 Dutch homeowners using a 2 × 2 between-group design. The stimulus material consisted of a communal newsletter advocating pro-environmental behaviours (both short-term and long-term investments in insulation and investment in an alternative heating system) in which both the outcome (gain vs. loss) and the point of reference (self vs. environment) were manipulated. The results indicate that the effect of outcome framing on pro-environmental behavioural intentions depends on the point of reference employed in a message as well as on a recipient’s regulatory focus. Homeowners’ pro-environmental intentions are stronger when the message is presented in a loss frame with a reference to the self than when the message is presented in a loss frame with a reference to the environment. Furthermore, pro-environmental intentions are stronger when the message is presented to homeowners in a gain frame with a promotion focus compared to a prevention focus. No direct effects were found for either outcome framing or point-of-reference framing.
Non-technical summary
The distribution of household carbon footprints is largely unequal within and across countries. Here, we explore household-level consumption data to illustrate the distribution of carbon footprints and consumption within 26 European Union countries, regions and social groups. The analysis further sheds light on the relationships between carbon footprints and socially desirable outcomes such as income, equality, education, nutrition, sanitation, employment and adequate living conditions.
For over half a century, worldwide growth in affluence has continuously increased resource use and pollutant emissions far more rapidly than these have been reduced through better technology. The affluent citizens of the world are responsible for most environmental impacts and are central to any future prospect of retreating to safer environmental conditions. We summarise the evidence and present possible solution approaches. Any transition towards sustainability can only be effective if far-reaching lifestyle changes complement technological advancements. However, existing societies, economies and cultures incite consumption expansion and the structural imperative for growth in competitive market economies inhibits necessary societal change. Current environmental impact mitigation neglects over-consumption from affluent citizens as a primary driver. The authors highlight the role of bottom-up movements to overcome structural economic growth imperatives spurring consumption by changing structures and culture towards safe and just systems.
Social norms play an important role in individual decision making. We argue that two different expectations influence our choice to obey a norm: what we expect others to do (empirical expectations) and what we believe others think we ought to do (normative expectations). Little is known about the relative importance of these two types of expectation in individuals' decisions, an issue that is particularly important when normative and empirical expectations are in conflict (e.g., systemic corruption, high crime cities). In this paper, we report data from Dictator game experiments where we exogenously manipulate dictators' expectations in the direction of either selfishness or fairness. When normative and empirical expectations are in conflict, we find that empirical expectations about other dictators' choices significantly predict a dictator's own choice. However, dictators' expectations regarding what other dictators think ought to be done do not have a significant impact on their decisions after controlling for empirical expectations. Our findings about the crucial influence of empirical expectations are important for designing institutions or policies aimed at discouraging undesirable behavior.
Prior research on eco-anxiety, or anxiety and worry about mounting environmental issues, has almost exclusively relied on cross-sectional trait reports. Consequently, little is known about how it is related to focal outcomes, such as well-being (e.g., happiness, meaning in life) and pro-environmental behavior, over time in daily life. To help address this issue, we conducted a preregistered daily diary study, wherein Canadian undergraduates (N = 132) provided trait reports and two weeks of daily reports (n = 1439) on eco-anxiety, positive and negative affect, meaning in life, and pro-environmental behavior. At the trait level, average scores on eco-anxiety were fairly low; yet, higher scores were associated with less positive affect and more negative affect and pro-environmental behavior. Average scores on eco-anxiety were even lower at the state level but nonetheless exhibited notable within-person variability. On days that people felt greater eco-anxiety, they also reported greater negative affect and pro-environmental behavior. Lagged analyses from one day to the next provided some evidence that eco-anxiety increases future negative affect. No significant relationships between eco-anxiety and meaning in life emerged at both levels of analysis. Together, these findings demonstrate that eco-anxiety can be productively conceived of—and studied as—both a trait and a state.
The low-carbon transition requires policies and behaviour changes that affect people's consumption habits. However, the impacts of the transition are likely to be experienced unevenly by consumers. Failing to account for these differences puts at risk the prospects of a just transition. This paper investigates the demand-side aspects of a just low-carbon transition, with a focus on the transport and food sectors in Sweden. It combines footprint analysis and sociodemographic and geographic analysis with an assessment of the distributional impacts of low-carbon transition policies from the perspectives of wealth, access, and health. The study finds variations in carbon footprint categories between those with higher or lower income and living in higher or lower density areas. It also finds varying degrees of ability to cope with the required shifts in the food and transport sectors. About 40 % of the Swedish population appears to be at higher risk from the adverse impacts on wealth and access related to policies aiming at low-carbon transition, because this cohort depends heavily on cars and is less able to cope with the increased price of carbon-intensive goods that these policies are expected to entail. The study also finds that, collectively, those most at risk of losing are responsible for 41 % of consumption-based emissions. The paper goes on to discuss implications for low-carbon transition policy measures and transitional assistance policy. Overall, it highlights the need for targeted, well-planned policies for emissions reductions and transitional assistance to support a fair low-carbon transition for all.
This handbook is the first to comprehensively study the interdependent fields of environmental and conservation psychology. In doing so, it seeks to map the rapidly growing field of conservation psychology and its relationship to environmental psychology. The Oxford Handbook of Environmental and Conservation Psychology includes basic research on environmental perceptions, attitudes, and values; research on specific environments, such as therapeutic settings, schools, and prisons; environmental impacts on human well-being; and ways to promote a more sustainable relationship between people and the natural environment. This handbook presents an extensive review of current research and is a thorough guide to the state of knowledge about a wide range of topics at the intersection of psychology and the physical environment. Beyond this, it provides a better understanding of the relationship between environmental and conservation psychology, and some sense of the directions in which these interdependent areas of study are heading.
Carbon taxes are generally well accepted in countries with significant experience thereof but there is still public resistance to raising them. We study attitudes toward carbon taxation and other environmental policy instruments in Sweden. We survey a national sample of the population as well as members of a large political movement that protests fuel taxes. Our results show that the motivations in both groups are alike: educational level, rural versus urban domicile, political orientation, and especially trust in government correlate with opinions on carbon taxes; household income does not appear to matter. Lack of trust in government and lack of belief in the Pigouvian mechanism appear as especially important motivations for protesters’ opposition. We find support for revenue refunding, but greater support, in both groups, for earmarking for climate use.
Recent empirical research shows that pride and guilt can positively influence pro-environmental behavior (PEB) and intentions (PEI). However, the findings of these studies have been inconsistent—with some studies concluding that guilt, but not pride, can be an effective motivator of PEB, and others observing the opposite pattern, or finding that both emotions can play a motivating role. We argue that these mixed results may partly be explained by the studies' methodologies—namely, whether the methodologies elicited experienced or anticipated emotions. These two types of emotional states are associated with different action tendencies, and thus, are likely to lead to different behavioral responses. We aim to add clarity to the question of when (and how) evoking pride and guilt may be effective motivational strategies by directly comparing how people respond to anticipated vs. experienced pride and guilt. We conducted two 2 (positive vs. negative feedback) x 2 (anticipated vs. experienced emotions) (plus a control) between-subjects experiments in the context of receiving feedback on one's PEB. Study 1 (N = 531) used a home energy footprint paradigm. Study 2 (N = 972) employed a choice paradigm in which participants received feedback on the carbon footprint of a company they could choose to support. Experienced and anticipated guilt predicted intentions to engage in PEB (Studies 1 and 2), more sustainable choices (Study 2), and mediated the relationship between feedback and PEI/choice. However, experienced and anticipated pride only led to stronger PEI or a more sustainable choice in Study 2. These findings suggest that the effect of pride may depend on the context in which the emotion was evoked (i.e., Study 1 evoked pride in response to a pattern of behavior over time vs. a single past behavior in Study 2). We discuss the implications of our findings and suggest paths for future research.
There are limited studies on specific factors that affect willingness-to-pay (WTP) and public concerns on spending of pollution pricing in democratic economies that are carbon dependent. In light of the discourse on global pollution pricing, this study explores the complex influence of political-economic, attitudinal, and socio-demographic factors on carbon pricing, by estimating the WTP in a carbon resource-dependent economy such as Canada and the preferred revenue earmarking of Canadians. An online survey of 600 Canadian households was conducted using the random device engagement (RDE) approach. This study uses a contingent valuation method (CVM) and payment card (P.C.) to estimate the household WTP for carbon pricing on direct energy expenditure and an ordered logistic regression model for odds ratio estimates. The estimated annual WTP ranges between CAD 230 in 2019 (CAD 0.7538). This implies an acceptable increment of 1.5%–2.5% (CAD 259) to the average yearly household energy expenditures. This study suggests that Canadians appear to be supportive of redistributing carbon price revenues and investing in clean energy technology. Canadian government needs to address public concerns surrounding political-economic factors, specifically the energy cost implication for vulnerable households in order to achieve emission reduction targets.
A rich body of empirical research has posited the emotional concepts of pride and guilt are psychological forces that affect pro-environmental behavior, yet there is conflicting evidence about how each shapes pro-environmental behavior. We report on results from the first meta-analysis that has evaluated the associations of pride and guilt in relation to pro-environmental behavior over a 30-year period. An analysis of 23 correlational studies showed that anticipated pride (r = 0.47) and anticipated guilt (r = 0.39) were significantly correlated with intended and reported pro-environmental behavior, and that anticipated pride had a stronger relationship with behavior than guilt. Results from 12 experimental studies indicated that pride (r = 0.17) and guilt (r = 0.26) were equally strong in their ability to explain variation in pro-environmental behavior. Additionally, a moderator analysis revealed that in experimental studies the effects of both anticipated pride and guilt were significantly correlated with intended and reported pro-environmental behavior but did not differ from one another. By contrast, only experienced guilt (and not pride) predicted intended and reported pro-environmental behavior in experimental research. These findings underscore the importance of considering the mechanisms and extent to which pride and guilt shape behavioral patterns that influence environmental sustainability.
The concept of ‘wellbeing economy’ (WE), that is, an economy that pursues human and ecological wellbeing instead of material growth, is gaining support amongst policymakers, business, and civil society. Over the past couple of years, several national governments have adopted the WE as their guiding framework to design development policies and assess social and economic progress. While it shares a number of basic principles with various post-growth conceptualisations, the WE's language and concepts tend to be more adaptable to different social and economic contexts, thus penetrating into policy processes and connecting to a variety of cultural traits, not only in advanced economies but also in less industrialised nations. In this paper, we describe the key features of the WE, including its approach to key concepts like work, productivity and technology and several examples of its policy impact. We conclude by positing that the WE framework may be one of the most effective bases to mainstream post-growth policies at the national and global level.
High consumers contribute to environmental degradation through their own consumption practices and the setting of societal material aspirations. This review of research on individual, social and structural aspects of high consumption shows that high consuming households remain largely unstudied, despite their likely significance for ensuring the well-being of current and future generations. The contradiction between the apparent impact of high consumers and their exclusion from research and policy initiatives highlights the need to initiate a research agenda on the topic of high consumption. This paper sets the scene for a research agenda which seeks to gain a better understanding of the role of high consumers in transitions to more sustainable consumption practices; the psychological, social and structural drivers of high consumption; the precise environmental impact of high consumers; their geographical distribution and the barriers to engaging them in sustainable consumption initiatives.
This paper shows that personal norms have a prominent role in explaining pro-social contribution in an online public good game. This finding suggests that the role of social norms might be loosened when subjects are distanced and interaction occurs online and in complete anonymity. Moreover, we found no statistically significant difference between the elicited norms and the norms that were elicited in a group of subjects not facing the contribution task, thus ruling out a potential self-justification bias.
The 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda rests on both economic growth and Inclusive Development (ID). However, since growth is entangled with socio-ecological exploitation and appropriation, it conflicts with ID where ‘inclusive’ encompasses social, ecological and relational dimensions, and fundamentally redefines ‘development’. Using Toulmin’s argumentative model, we show that: (a) inclusive green growth does not promote socio-ecological inclusion and ignores relational inclusion, as economic growth cannot be optimized towards those broader aims; (b) policies for inclusion through pro-poor ‘access’ without ‘re-allocation’ of resources are self-defeating, as inequitable allocation of wealth and of a limited environmental utilization space impoverishes the poor and transfers ecological risks to them; (c) ‘re-allocation’ requires a post-growth agenda involving a downscaling of overconsumption and overaccumulation by the global Centers, and a redefinition of development by the Peripheries; and (d) such an agenda is obstructed by the unequal distribution of wealth and political power. The only way forward is when science and social movements converge to demand system change on the streets and in the courts.
Purpose
In response to scholarly calls, the study aims to extend and magnify the existing understanding by unravelling the differential impact of anticipated emotions on green practice adoption intention through a proposed model by integrating anticipated pride and guilt in the same continuum along with values (altruistic, biospheric and egoistic) on an employee's attitude.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data randomly from 307 employees and middle-level executives of three subsidiaries of CIL through the simple random sampling (SRS) technique. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).
Findings
Results demonstrate that anticipated guilt influences individual cognitions and future ecological decision-making through improved attitude and higher concern for the environment while pride influences only through improved attitude. Other than biospheric and altruistic values, anticipated guilt is a direct and important antecedent of concern. Altruistic values are more influential predictors of environmental intentions in comparison to biospheric values. At the same time, environmental concern is more robust in predicting eco-intentions than attitude.
Originality/value
It makes notable difference from other studies by not only exploring the validity of the relationship between values on attitude and environmental concern but has also considered anticipated emotions of pride and guilt together alongside values on the same continuum as an antecedent of environmental attitude and concern towards employees’ green behavioural intention at the workplace. The findings are believed to provide a common consensus on differential effects of different states of emotions on environmental concern and attitude.
Faced with a growing sense of urgency to combat climate change, environmental policy is increasingly turning to alternative policy instruments. One method for boosting green behaviour among individuals rooted in applied behavioural economics is loss framing - transforming existing messages so that they emphasise the potential negative consequences of an action or inaction on the environment. This paper provides a systematic review of the existing body of evidence on framing effects in pro-environmental decisions. Based on an analysis of 61 studies captured in 47 distinct papers we find that real behaviour has been largely neglected as an outcome variable, with preference in the literature given to the measurement of self-reporting constructs such as attitudes, willingness to pay and behavioural intentions. In support of the loss aversion hypothesis, loss framing was found to be more or equally effective in all studies examining behaviour and intentions, though gain framing was more successful where the choices taken required lower commitment, namely attitudes. We provide an analysis of other loss framing success factors and draw policy- and research implications.
Social norm represents one of the most interdisciplinary and
important concepts in the behavioral sciences. We reviewed
recent research examining the effects of social norms on
climate change-related behaviors, identifying relevant
evidence in five behavioral domains: eco-friendly consumer
choices, energy conservation, reduction/re-use/recycling,
sustainable food choices, and water conservation. We discuss
this research as it pertains to a set of theoretically important
questions that emerged as themes across these studies and
discuss various future research directions as they relate to each
theme. Overall, the recent evidence is quite robust in
demonstrating influential effects of social norms on an array of
behaviors relevant to climate change.
This article examines the role of stated preference (SP) valuation methods in the environmental economist's toolbox. Overall, the article makes the case for using SP methods in a wide range of settings, showing how the approach can be used to both inform policy and gain a better understanding of people's choices and preferences. First, we provide an overview of SP methods and discuss a number of policy design issues where we believe SP methods have advantages over alternative approaches. The ability of SP to overcome "hypothetical market bias" is briefly reviewed. Next, we discuss how SP methods can be used to address research issues concerning people's preferences and choices, which have broader implications for economics and behavioral sciences. These research issues are (1) the effects of information, learning and knowledge; (2) testing the validity of the standard model of consumer choice; (3) the influence of behavioral drivers such as social norms; and (4) the role of "deep" determinants of preference heterogeneity such as emotions and personality. Finally, we identify some research areas where SP methods may be particularly useful in the future. © 2019 The Author(s) 2019. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Environmental and Resource Economists. All rights reserved. For permissions, please email: [email protected]
Feedback on one's consumption, for instance, via a carbon footprint calculator, is a common strategy used in attempts to promote pro-environmental action. Although feedback can be effective in reducing consumption, little research examines the psychological processes that may be involved. In other contexts, negative feedback can evoke guilt, whereas positive feedback can evoke pride. Pride is often associated with pro-environmental behavior, but findings are more mixed for guilt. These mixed findings may stem from heterogeneity in the measurement and operationalization of guilt across prior studies, which have measured experienced and anticipated, personal and collective guilt. The objective of the present research is to examine the roles of experienced, personal pride and guilt in an environmental feedback context, which explicitly encourages reflection on one's own past behavior. In two studies, participants from online panels completed a carbon footprint quiz and were assigned to receive bogus feedback that was framed negatively or positively, or to a control condition involving neutral feedback (Study 1, N = 397), or no feedback (Study 2, N = 544). Participants completed a measure of pro-environmental behavior one week later. In both studies, negative feedback resulted in stronger feelings of guilt, whereas positive feedback resulted in stronger feelings of pride. Both studies found that guilt, but not pride, mediated the association between feedback and subsequent pro-environmental behavior. Findings shed light on the psychological processes that occur following provision of feedback, and suggest that feedback that evokes experienced personal guilt, but not pride, may be more effective in encouraging pro-environmental behavior.
The literature on the energy-efficiency gap discusses the status-quo bias as a behavioral anomaly that potentially increases a household’s energy consumption.
We empirically investigate the extent to which the status-quo bias is linked to residential electricity consumption through two channels: non-replacement of old appliances and overuse of appliances. Using data from a large household survey conducted in three European countries, we find that our measure of status-quo bias is a significant predictor of both the age of home appliances and the level of a household’s consumption of energy services. This is also reflected in the total electricity consumption, which is found to be around 6% higher when the household head is status-quo biased. We thus provide empirical evidence that the status-quo bias may represent a substantial barrier to increasing residential energy efficiency. Our findings prompt policy makers to design instruments that take this barrier into account.