1,721,003 research outputs found
The role of environmental organisations in supporting carbon reduction: Comparing direct and indirect involvement
No full textEnvironmental third sector organisations (EOs) aim to bring about social change by influencing not only policy making but also citizens’ attitudes and behaviours directly. While there is some evidence that direct involvement in environmental initiatives can encourage carbon reducing behaviours, it is often believed that less direct forms of engagement are less effective in supporting behaviour change. This article provides a first direct comparison of associations between direct and indirect involvement with EOs and carbon reducing behaviours, based on a representative UK survey. Results show that while direct involvement is more strongly associated with carbon reducing behaviours than indirect involvement, both associations remain significant in the combined model. However, this only applies to more affluent respondents and not to those who, due to social disadvantage, do not participate in high carbon activities. This suggests that EOs may further behaviour change through broader outreach work, especially among better situated groups
The role of values for voluntary reductions of holiday air travel
Full text linkRecent research has shown that holiday air travel constitutes a typical value-action gap as many people continue to fly despite their concerns about climate change. However, some people do voluntarily reduce their holiday flights. Little is known so far about the role that values play in this decision. This paper examines this question based on semi-structured interviews with participants in local climate change and energy-saving projects. It finds that people who voluntarily reduce their holiday air travel are more ready than those who continue to fly to accept that their behaviour makes a contribution to climate change; that they feel a moral imperative to act regardless of its effectiveness in mitigating climate change; and that they distance themselves from socially dominant norms related to holiday air travel. This paper argues that these characteristics are connected to values of self-transcendence and self-direction, and that in this way values remain important for understanding and supporting low carbon behaviour
Who emits most? An analysis of UK households' CO2 emissions and their association with socio-economic factors
No full textUK households' carbon footprint: a comparison of the association between household characteristics and emissions from home energy, transport and other goods and services
Full text linkDoes the association between household characteristics and household CO2 emissions differ for different areas such as home energy, transport, indirect and total emissions in the UK? Specific types of households might be more likely to have high emissions in some areas than in others and thus be affected differently by climate mitigation policies that target these areas.Using the Living Costs and Food Survey and Expenditure and Food Survey for the years 2006 to 2009, this paper compares how household characteristics like income, household size, rural/urban location and education level differ in their association with home energy, transport, indirect and total emissions. We find that the association between household characteristics and emissions differs considerably across these areas, particularly for income, education, the presence of children, female headed, workless and rural households. We also test the implicit assumption in the literature that the association between household characteristics and CO2 emission is constant across the CO2 emission distribution using quantile regressions and compare results for poor and rich households. The analysis considers policy implications of these findings throughout
Expenditure as proxy for UK household emissions? Comparing three estimation methods
No full textDue to a lack of emissions data at the household level, studies examining the relationship between UK household CO2 emissions and household characteristics currently rely on expenditure surveys to estimate emissions. There are several possible methods available for doing so but so far there is no discussion in the literature about the advantages and disadvantages related to these options. Such a comparison is relevant because studies in this area often draw policy-relevant conclusions.To address this gap, this paper compares three different methods of estimation to discuss two questions: first, is it at all necessary to convert household expenditure into emissions, given that household expenditure and emissions are strongly correlated, and does research that takes this approach add anything to the insights that already exist in the extensive literature on the determinants of household expenditure? Second, if we assume that it is necessary to convert household expenditure into emissions, are more detailed (and time-consuming) methods of doing so superior to less detailed approaches? The analysis is based on expenditure data from the UK Living Costs and Food Survey 2008-9 and its predecessor the Expenditure and Food Survey 2006-7
Who emits most? Associations between socio-economic factors and UK households' home energy, transport, indirect and total CO2 emissions
No full textDoes the association between household characteristics and household CO2 emissions differ for different areas such as home energy, transport and indirect emissions? This question is policy relevant because distributional implications of mitigation policies may vary depending on the area of emissions that is targeted if specific types of households are likely to have higher emissions in some areas than in others. So far, this issue has not been examined in depth in the literature on household CO2 emissions. Using a representative UK expenditure survey, this paper compares how household characteristics like income, household size, education, gender, worklessness and rural and urban location differ in their association with all three areas as well as total emissions. We find that these associations vary considerably across emission domains. In particular, whilst emissions in all areas rise with income, low income, workless and elderly households are more likely to have high emissions from home energy than from other domains, suggesting they may be less affected by carbon taxes on transport or total emissions. This demonstrates that fairness implications related to mitigation policies need to be examined for separate emission domains
Mainstreaming the environment? the third sector and environmental performance management
No full textThird sector organisations (TSOs) are increasingly seeking to find ways in which their performance can be evaluated to demonstrate the value of their activities (Kendall and Knapp, 2000; Paton, 2003; Arvidson, 2009). While the focus of TSOs has been predominantly the analysis of their social benefits, there is increasing awareness that the third sector needs to better consider its environmental impact.This has been given increased momentum by the publication of Shaping Our Future: The Joint Ministerial and Third Sector Task Force Report on Climate Change, the Environment and Sustainable Development in March 2010. Given the prominence of environmental issues in recent years, it is disarming to discover that there is only a limited literature on how TSOs evaluate their environmentalperformance. In an attempt to develop a more systematic approach to this field of study, this paper provides a brief summary of the range of tools that are currently available to TSOs to evaluate their environmental performance. It then offers an analytical framework for understanding and evaluating the variety of tools and outlines a research agenda for field research on understanding the application of such tools in practice
Third sector organisations’ role in pro-environmental behaviour change – a review of the literature and evidence
No full textA range of actors, including government, third sector organisations (TSOs) and academics, have claimed recently that third sector organisations (TSOs) can play an important role in supporting people to adopt pro-environmental behaviours. These claims often refer to TSOs’ potential to innovate, their proximity to citizens and their trustworthiness, as well as the role of collective action and small-group interventions. This paper reviews these different claims as well as the evidence that has been offered to date on the role of TSOs in pro-environmental behaviour change. We find that there is indeed some evidence that participation in environmental third sector initiatives can facilitate certain changes in people’s day to day lives, particularly when it comes to ‘low hanging fruits’ such as increasing recycling or switching off appliances. However, the review also identifies a range of challenges that TSOs experience in their work, including engaging the broader public around climate change or other environmental issues, scaling up practice change to a wider audience and a lack of resources to sustain successful initiatives. Finally, the paper argues that there is a need for further discussion on a range of issues related to empirical research in this area, including methodological challenges of examining behaviour change and the more differentiated assessments that take organisational form, nature of intervention and type of targeted behaviour into accoun
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