Showing posts with label Behaviour Change. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Behaviour Change. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Changing Behaviour Is As Important As Changing Technology

Compared to what is put into technological research behavior change is a neglected area of climate change education. Yet unless we can do something different things wont change. I think this is a brilliant article on how to get more savvy with behaviour change. Using behavioral science to make smarter energy policy | Energy Bulletin

Here is a small excerpt from the article:

"How much does it cost for a given climate solution to eliminate (abate) a metric ton of CO2 emissions? With plug-in hybrid vehicles, that ton costs around $12. With wind power, it's $20. With carbon capture and storage at coal-fired power plants, it's $44.

How much does that same ton of CO2 abatement cost using these behavioral programs? -$165. No, that's not a typo. It's a negative sign. As in: $165 worth of profit per ton of carbon pollution reduced. If similar programs were expanded nationwide, Allcott and Mullainathan estimate a net value -- savings minus costs -- of $2,220,000,000 a year. Of course much research and testing remains to be done before it's clear whether these programs perform equally well at scale, but as a first approximation, that's not too shabby."