RT Journal Article
SR 00
A1 Nauges, Céline
A1 Wheeler, Sarah Ann
T1 The complex relationship between households’ climate change concerns and their water and energy mitigation behaviour
JF Ecological Economics
YR 2017
FD 2017-11
VO 141
SP 87
OP 94
K1 economic incentives
K1 rebound effect
K1 mitigation behaviour
K1 climate change attitudes
AB Climate change will require commitment by all levels of the community, but there is still uncertainty surrounding the best way to influence individual mitigation behaviour. This study analyses household survey data on water and energy climate change mitigation behaviour from eleven OECD countries in 2011, and provides new evidence of a form of maladaptation, namely a complex rebound relationship between climate change attitudes and mitigation behaviour. First, results confirm other studies that climate change concerns and economic incentives (in terms of electricity and water charges) positively influence mitigation behaviour. Second, we find that the more costly, in terms of time and/or money, are the mitigation actions of a household, the more likely undertaking such actions directly lessens respondents’ climate change concerns. This negative rebound effect is more likely to occur in ‘environmentally-motivated’ households, who are more likely to have stated they believe human actions can help mitigate climate change. Conversely, economic incentives in driving energy and water pro-environmental behaviour work better in non-environmentallymotivated households. This highlights that a portfolio of policies is needed to drive mitigation behaviour.
PB Elsevier
SN 0921-8009
LK https://publications.ut-capitole.fr/id/eprint/24120/
UL http://tse-fr.eu/pub/31758