Abstract
Meeting climate change targets to limit global warming to 2°C requires rapid and large reductions in demand for products that most contribute to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. These include production of bulk materials (e.g. steel and cement), energy supply (e.g. fossil fuels) and animal source foods (particularly ruminants and their products). Effective strategies to meet these targets require transformative changes in supply as well as demand, involving changes in economic, political and legal systems at local, national and international levels, building on evidence from many disciplines. This paper outlines contributions from behavioural science in reducing demand. Grounded in dual-process models of human behaviour (involving non-conscious and conscious processes) this paper considers first why interventions aimed at changing population values towards the environment are usually insufficient or unnecessary for reducing demand although they may be important in increasing public acceptability of policies that could reduce demand. It then outlines two sets of evidence from behavioural science towards effective systems-based strategies, to identify interventions likely to be effective at: (i) reducing demand for products that contribute most to GHG emissions, mainly targeting non-conscious processes and (ii) increasing public acceptability for policy changes to enable these interventions, targeting conscious processes.This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.
Highlights
Grounded in dualprocess models of human behaviour this paper considers first why interventions aimed at changing population values towards the environment are usually insufficient or unnecessary for reducing demand they may be important in increasing public acceptability of policies that could reduce demand
Climate change is being driven by excess greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions arising from a range of human activities including production of bulk materials, use of energy from non-sustainable supplies and production of animal source foods
Drawing upon evidence for reducing over-consumption of products that harm health this paper considers, first, the types of interventions likely to be effective at reducing demand for products that contribute most to carbon and equivalent emissions, and second, how public acceptability for these interventions might be increased to enhance their chances of being incorporated into policy
Summary
Cite this article: Marteau TM. 2017 Towards environmentally sustainable human behaviour: targeting non-conscious and conscious processes for effective and acceptable policies. Grounded in dualprocess models of human behaviour (involving non-conscious and conscious processes) this paper considers first why interventions aimed at changing population values towards the environment are usually insufficient or unnecessary for reducing demand they may be important in increasing public acceptability of policies that could reduce demand. It outlines two sets of evidence from behavioural science towards effective systemsbased strategies, to identify interventions likely to be effective at: (i) reducing demand for products that contribute most to GHG emissions, mainly targeting non-conscious processes and (ii) increasing. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’
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