The war on global warming

That global warming is the most pressing problem facing our planet is a message hitting home with UK householders. Yet there remains a gulf between understanding the issues – and taking personal action to help prevent them. Here Mike Nye, Senior Research Associate at the University of East Anglia, outlines some of the innovation necessary to change a nation's behaviour.

With the domestic sector estimated to be responsible for around 30 per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, householders have a crucial role to play in the fight against global warming. 

But persuading people to make fundamental changes to their own lifestyles is a complex proposition.

Even if they do buy into the need for change, will they take action if leaving the car at home, for example, results in a longer journey to work?

"Attempts to provoke large-scale behaviour change simply by adopting an economic-type rational choicemodel based on the assumption of improper attitudes or an information deficit is not sufficient," says Dr Nye.

"When somebody leaves the tap running while brushing their teeth, they're probably not thinking, 'I don't care about the environment.' They're probably just doing it out of habit," he explains.

A hard habit to break

Identifying bad habits is easy - persuading people to break them is not.

One way is to remove the barriers, which stop people going green. By making recycling simple and convenient, for example. But even that alone is not enough.

"It's one thing to have facilities and another to use them. People have to find the motivation for doing it. 

"They have to connect the impact of what they do every day to the problem.  And they need to connect their ability to change what they do to some kind of solution."

Turning thought into action - what we should do next

Dr. Nye discussed three farily new and innovative ways of achieving pro-environmental behaiovur change in everday activities.

Encourage wider use of Smart Metering:

By tying immediate feedback on personal energy use to everyday activities like boiling the kettle, smart meters' are proving to be one way of cutting household consumption.  However, there are issues about ownership of meters and the cost of such systems that need to be overcome before their use can become widespread. 

This is just barrier to the widespread use of smart meters in the UK.  I would prefer not to use this statement as it oversimplifies a complex issue in terms of how smart meters effect behaviour.  (see my new text above.)

Cut Food Miles:

Carbon reduction labels, which measure a product's carbon footprint across its lifecycle, are being introduced in an attempt to kick-start a revolution in the nation's shopping habits, giving consumers the information they need to make eco-friendly choices. There are important issues to be worked out here in terms of the methodology of carbon labelling, but it is an interesting and innovative step towards tackling the food miles issue.
Dr Nye says: "The issue of food miles is often overlooked but it levels the playing field in terms of the ecological impact of different lifestyles. You may not have a car - but then eat a lot of food that's flown around the country!"

Offset carbon footprints:

As carbon offsetting grows in popularity, so too do its critics. In response, a 'gold standard' is being developed to create credits that "are more credible than just planting some forest somewhere that may die in a year." 

Local action for large-scale change

Even with these three steps, achieving long-term, mass behaviour change on a national scale will never be easy.

One solution may be to offer householders incentives to make greener choices - but Dr Nye warns against one-off 'promotions' that provide a short term fix without changing behaviour for good.

Another is to stimulate global change locally, motivating individuals in specific communities to tackle behaviour change within their shared ways of life/surrounding contexts. 

In this respect, the growing popularity of internet social networking sites could  also act as a catalyst. 

"If your friends start doing something, it begins to stick," explains Dr Nye. "That's why the community aspect is so important. It's much easier to influence people through people they know; you trust that information a lot more."

Indeed, Dr Nye is currently involved with the Global Action Plan, which (among other activities) runs a programme that brings together small groups of householders to examine their environmental impacts and share ideas for change.