Climate Change Behaviour
17th September 2007 by Anne-Marie Warris
Recent research has indicated, as I think we all knew, that as individuals we are very concerned about climate change and its effects but when asked if we would pay more tax or change our behaviour the research indicate that no we will not. So what can we do?
Clearly direct tax or financial incentives would not work unless they were at a level which would be unacceptable to us all. We would see a minor change from tax and financial incentives but not a major swing, just witness the growth in air travel. So we need an approach that deals with issues from another perspective. Perhaps some options would be:
- move climate change good behaviour to the same approach as we have seen with organic food, although it would have to be prompted on a basis that it is good for our health, children or livelihood
- government could provide more support and input to ‘choice editing’ , see my choice editing post.
- incentives to make us choose public transport over car journeys. Why is a train journey in the Netherlands from Amsterdam airport to Utrecht (30 minutes express train) costing just over 7 euros (so £ 4.50) at any time no prebooking, while a train journey from London to Coventry (just over an hour) can be about £60 one way (no wonder the car seems a better deal)!
- encouragement/ awards for energy efficiency related to our energy supply companies e.g. provide them with ‘awards’ for the energy they save or provide as renewable and for the work to encourage us individuals to save energy permanently, even if this means they sell less energy.
I am sure there are a lot of other good ideas out there…
Dr Anne-Marie Warris is the Lloyd’s Register Group’s leading climate change expert. She is also the chairperson for the ISO 140001 Technical Subcommittee 1, as well as the UK Emissions Trading Group.