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Energy-Saving behaviour

Negative spillover to policy

Nature Climate Change volume 7, pages 473–474 (2017)Cite this article

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Individuals are often asked to reduce their home energy consumption. But new research suggests that reminders of these personal energy savings may undermine public support for national-level policies.

Recycle! Eat less meat! Turn off the lights! Countless media, non-profit, and government campaigns push people to take on individual behaviours for the sake of the environment. In the domain of climate change, researchers have discussed a behavioural wedge1 by which the individual efforts of many could, in aggregate, be one of multiple wedges for climate change mitigation. Yet behavioural interventions have been criticized because of concern that they could diminish support for the comprehensive policies needed to adequately address the climate challenge2. Writing in Nature Climate Change, Seth Werfel3 reports just this sort of effect among members of the Japanese public: reminding people of the energy-saving actions they took during a campaign to reduce household energy use in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear plant shutdown reduced their support for a national carbon tax.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 48109, Michigan, USA

    Kaitlin T. Raimi

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  1. Kaitlin T. Raimi
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Correspondence to Kaitlin T. Raimi.

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Raimi, K. Negative spillover to policy. Nature Clim Change 7, 473–474 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3317

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