Climate Change Demands Behavioral Change:

What are the challenges?

Elke U. WeberColumbia University

Loyola University 2nd Annual Climate Change ConferenceMarch 20, 2015

• Fifth Assessment Report (FAR)

• New York Times Editorial, April 1, 2014:“Perhaps now the deniers will cease their

attacks on the science of climate change, and the American public will, at last, fullyaccept that global warming is a dangernow and an even graver threat to future generations.”

Homo sapiens

• Not primarily a creature of rational deliberation

• Instead, a creature of habit• Learn best from personal

experience

• Use associations, emotions, and rules/habits to guide actions

• Many goals, often conflicting

Climate Change as the “perfect storm”• Inaction is the behavioral default

– Status-quo bias– Vested interests in status-quo

• “Merchants of doubt”

• (Effective) action is complicated– Collective action required– Uncertainties at scientific, technology, political, and

social level

• Wishful thinking (and misperception or underestimation of CC risks) as an understandable response

Climate Change, a tough nut to crack

• Risk is abstract, statistical, in the future• Solution requires sustained attention on many

fronts and cooperation– No silver bullet, only silver buckshot

• Cost of action upfront, certain, and aversive• Benefits of action in the future, uncertain, and

disputed

Status-quo bias

Fundamental challenge!

• Not true that “if you build it, they will come”• NIMBY for grid transmission lines in Germany

Status-quo bias and lack of imagination

What to do?

• Solutions can be found in the diagnosis• Why is there status-quo bias?

– Typically, safety in “the known”• Not the case for climate change!!!• Argument for scaring people into action?

“The Day After Tomorrow”

What to do?• Solutions can be found in the diagnosis• Why is there status-bias?

– Typically, safety in “the known”• Not the case for climate change!!!• Argument for scaring people into action?

• NO!• Not hard-wired to worry about environmental risks

– Climate change not dreaded like Ebola or terrorism

• Risk seeking in domain of losses– Prospect theory (Kahneman & Tversky, 1979)– Politicians and people are willing to take their chances with climate

change rather than locking in “sure-loss” scenarios

Turn challenges to advantages

• E.g., make “green” electricity the default option in letters to customers– Tested by two utilities in Southern Germany– Great results not just at the time but a year later

Communication Guides

cred.columbia.edu/guide connectingonclimate.org

All hands on deck…• Public

– Individual action (e.g., energy use), purchase power, and political will

• CEOs, Corporate Board members• Companies

– (Re)insurance, shipping, renewable energy, utilities– B2B purchasing

• Architects/Infrastructure Designers– Infrastructure decisions lock in future energy use patterns

• Politicians– Falling down on the job!– Need to expect public opposition to change

Two Bold Policies

• 2002 New York City smoking ban– Banned smoking in all public buildings in NYC,

including bars

• 2008 British Columbia carbon tax– Revenue neutral tax on greenhouse gas emissions

• Media Analysis– Treuer, Weber, Appelt, Goll, Crookes (2014)

All hands on deck…• (Social) scientists

– Economists are falling down on the job, almost no work on sustainable growth models

– Need to rethink global climate treaty negotiation approaches

– Need new models and metrics of human happiness and well-being

• Playwrights, Directors– We need alternative visions of the future, utopias, not

(just) dystopias

All hands on deck…• (Social) scientists

– Economists are falling down on the job, almost no work on sustainable growth models

– Need to rethink global climate treaty negotiation approaches

– Need new models and metrics of human happiness and well-being

• Playwrights, Directors– We need alternative visions of the future, utopias, not

(just) dystopias

Inaction is not an option…

• Change will come, with our without us!• Action on all fronts

– remember the “silver buckshot” analogy

• Provide lists of effective actions • Focus on the positive consequences of change• Use our long and successful past on planet

Earth to motivate investment in the future • Imagine a new future!