Understanding Residential Sustainable Energy Behaviour and Policy Preferences

Abstract

Energy production and use account for two-thirds of the world's greenhouse gas emissions (IEA, 2015), thereby contributing to global climate change (IPCC, 2014). Besides environmental problems, energy production and use pose societal challenges, including energy poverty and geopolitics of energy that threaten global security and prosperity. The Paris Agreement marks a historic event when countries worldwide committed to combat climate change. To achieve these ambitious targets, countries will have to shift towards more sustainable ways of producing and using energy (EC, 2016a). The residential sector accounts for about 20 to 25 per cent of the total energy consumption in European Union (EU) countries (Eurostat, 2014a) and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries (IEA, 2015). If households used cleaner energy and engaged in more sustainable energy behaviours, this could significantly contribute to combating climate change (Nature Energy, 2016; Stern et al., 2016a). But which factors influence whether individuals and households act sustainably and whether they accept sustainable solutions, such as renewable energy projects? Social sciences have an important role to play in answering these questions (Clayton et al., 2015; Hackmann, Moser and Clair, 2014; Sovacool, 2014; Stern, Sovacool and Dietz, 2016b; Weaver et al., 2014). In this chapter, we take the Integrated Framework for Encouraging Pro-Environmental Behaviour (IFEP; Steg et al., 2014a) as a starting point for understanding and encouraging sustainable energy behaviour and acceptability of sustainable energy projects. More specifically, we argue that people's values influence the likelihood that people will engage in many different sustainable energy behaviours as well as influencing public acceptability of sustainable energy projects. In addition, the IFEP proposes that contextual factors affect the likelihood that people consider environmental consequences of their choices. We review cutting edge psychological literature on factors influencing sustainable energy behaviour and the acceptability of sustainable energy projects from the view of this framework. Notably, sustainable energy projects often introduce new technology and/or require behavioural change, so similar factors are likely to influence sustainable energy behaviours and acceptability of sustainable energy projects. Next, we discuss intervention strategies aimed at promoting sustainable energy behaviour and acceptability of sustainable energy projects.