Changing Behaviour

The Changing Behaviours research group provides insight on why and how people make decisions on climate-related activities, with a view to helping researchers, policymakers and businesses identify effective interventions to promote environmentally-friendly behaviours among citizens and firms.

Researchers from this group explore the behavioural mechanisms on which policymakers and businesses can capitalize to improve the private provision of environmental goods (such as switching to environmentally friendly practices and technologies) at least cost. They aim to identify opportunities to apply behavioural and experimental economics to inform environmental policies and practices.

To this end, researchers from this group study attitudes to new business practices, different consumer behaviours, novel technologies and environmental risks. More broadly, they also explore the context of the political economy in which decisions by individuals in the public and private sector – consumers, workers and decision-makers – are made. These insights can help researchers, policymakers and businesses to identify effective interventions to promote climate-friendly decisions.

Research

Cooperation in the climate commons

Climate change is a global externality that has proven difficult to address through formal institutions alone due to the public good properties of climate change mitigation and the lack of … read more »

Submission to the inquiry by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee on ‘Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change’

This submission to the Environmental Audit Committee's inquiry on ‘Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change’ focuses on the importance of communicating with the public to raise awareness of the increasing incidence of heatwaves. read more »

Greta Thunberg’s yacht trip to New York not as green as it may seem

Bob Ward talks about Greta Thunberg’s yacht trip to New York. He says “What we need is zero-carbon aviation and I hope that will result from her drawing attention to the fact that the only way to travel long distances with zero emissions at the moment is by arduous, long journeys such as on a yacht.” read more »