As we have seen from the recent wave of climate protests, even one individual – a 16-year old Swedish girl called Greta Thunberg – can make a huge difference when it comes to tackling climate change. If every household contributed to emissions reductions by making certain lifestyle changes, we could reach the temperature reduction targets enshrined in the Paris Agreement. So why is behaviour change not receiving more attention from policy makers? Research by Professor Benjamin Sovacool and colleagues from across Europe has looked at the contributions households could make to emissions reduction and argues that there is potential for individuals to be at the heart of mitigation policies. Their new policy brief, based on a four-year project called HOPE (HOusehold Preference for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in four European high-income countries), shows that effective climate change mitigation policies are needed to mobilise individual behaviour change.
SPRU 1st July 2019 read more »