Abstract
Various energy sources are positioned as sustainable, assuming this may elicit positive evaluations of these sources, particularly among people who care about nature and the environment (i.e. have strong biospheric values). For example, the gas industry and some politicians position gas as a relatively clean fossil fuel and as a transition fuel towards future sustainable energy systems. But will people, particularly those who strongly endorse biospheric values, positively evaluate every energy development that is promoted as sustainable? We studied how sustainability claims affect evaluations of gas in the Netherlands. In line with what is commonly stated in practice, in a scenario study, we either presented natural gas as a relatively clean fossil fuel in current energy systems, or as a transition fuel in future energy systems with an increased share of renewables. Interestingly, stronger biospheric values were not associated with more positive evaluations of natural gas in either of these conditions. Yet, the stronger their biospheric values, the more positively respondents evaluated gas innovations, namely green gas and power-to-gas, which do not rely on fossil fuels. The findings demonstrate that merely sustainability claims may not allay the concerns that people have about the environmental consequences of some energy developments.
Highlights
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 in Paris, countries across the world agreed to act towards reducing climate change [1]
Various energy sources, including renewable energy sources, nuclear power, natural gas, and unconventional gas and oil have been positioned in the energy market as sustainable from an environmental point of view; we will label these arguments as sustainability claims in the remainder of this paper
Follow-up analyses in MANCOVA revealed that the effects of values were significant for evaluations of environmental consequences of all gas-related activities (gas use: F(1, 316) = 13.76, p < 0.001, Áp2 = 0.04; gas transport, F(1, 316) = 11.48, p = 0.001, Áp2 =0.04; gas production, F(1, 316) = 13.03, p < 0.001, Áp2 =0.04)
Summary
At the United Nations Climate Change Conference 2015 in Paris, countries across the world agreed to act towards reducing climate change [1]. Various energy sources, including renewable energy sources, nuclear power, natural gas, and unconventional gas and oil have been positioned in the energy market as (relatively) sustainable from an environmental point of view (e.g. low CO2 emissions); we will label these arguments as sustainability claims in the remainder of this paper. How do such sustainability claims affect people’s evaluations of energy developments? Even if people have strong biospheric values, will they give positive evaluations of any energy development that is promoted as sustainable? Even if people have strong biospheric values, will they give positive evaluations of any energy development that is promoted as sustainable? Below, we review literature on biospheric values and the relationships between these values and people’s evaluations of energy developments, and propose boundary conditions under which strong biospheric values may or may not enhance positive evaluations of energy developments that are positioned as sustainable
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