Sustainability policy as if people mattered: developing a framework for environmentally significant behavioral change

Chad Baum () and Christian Gross
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Christian Gross: Federal Ministry of Justice and Consumer Protection

Journal of Bioeconomics, 2017, vol. 19, issue 1, No 4, 53-95

Abstract: Abstract International climate accords like the Paris agreement set the broad agenda for climate action. To realize their potential however, it is vital to ‘get the context right’ so that environmentally significant behaviors can be repeated over time. This paper reviews the extant interdisciplinary literature to outline how a richer understanding of the interrelationships between individual and contextual factors is required to cultivate behavioral change. In this manner, 18 distinct behavioral determinants are identified. We argue that the likelihood of behavioral change and overall environmental impact are thereby reliant on the complex interaction between individual behavior and the multiple distinct layers of context that frame its expression. Our behavior-informed approach thus helps to explain processes of behavioral change more fully, establish the types of obstacles that exist, and delineate a fuller and more substantial role for individual-driven behavioral change that is able to build on the initial impetus of global-level frameworks.

Keywords: Sustainability policy; Individual behavior; Rebound effects; Behavioral spillovers; Contextual determinants (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A12 O33 P28 P36 Q01 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (17)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10818-016-9238-3

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