• Energy Research

The present study examined the overall potential that the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions have for the promotion of climate-friendly food consumption in Germany. We looked at COVID-19-related changes in people’s climate-friendly food-consumption behaviors by comparing retrospectively self-reported performances between the time period in which the COVID-19 restrictions were in place and the pre-COVID-19 period. Furthermore, we examined the durability of such COVID-19-related changes with regard to an imagined post-COVID-19 period and the role of people’s personal climate-protection norms in COVID-19-related behavioral changes. To do so, we conducted two online surveys in June/July 2020 with German consumers: (a) an online study in a sample that was representative of the German population (NCOR1 = 3092) and (b) another online study in a smaller sample of German consumers (NCOR2 = 300). Altogether, the data from both surveys indicated several COVID-19-related changes toward more climate-friendly food consumption, not only during the COVID-19 pandemic and its restrictions, but also with regard to long-term changes in a potential post-COVID-19 period. Furthermore, our results also provide initial empirical evidence that people’s personal climate-protection norms are relevant moderating factors of these short- and long-term COVID-19-related behavioral changes.

This study attempts to identify the main drivers for e-car investments in households and organizations. We questioned 227 decision makers in households currently considering car purchases, and 101 decision makers in small businesses. The businesses were private care services, because their driving profiles widely fit the capabilities of modern e-cars. The main investment drivers were compared in an integrated action model involving elements of the theory of planned behavior and the norm-activation model, i.e., investment intentions, attitudes, personal (ecological) and social norms, and perceived behavioral control. For each group, different models were calculated in order to investigate the relevance of different types of social norms within the decision process, i.e., injunctive or descriptive norms. As expected, the household and organizational decisions were found to be based on different key factors: the decision makers in households mostly considered personal and descriptive social norms; the organizational decisions were mostly grounded in attitudes and injunctive social norms concerning staff expectations. The results suggest the need for tailored policy measures for each target group.

Abstract Owning a PV system, households take part in electricity production which might change their electricity use, but so far, their daily life use of electricity and monitoring has not been researched in depth. Therefore, the way PV households monitor their PV system and how their monitoring is related to energy use was investigated. More precisely, the role of active monitoring (e.g., note down electricity data or use of online portals for data treatment) in energy use by means of load shifting activities and energy-saving behaviors was studied. Special attention was paid to available devices and different policy frameworks. Participants (N = 425 PV households) were recruited from 15 PV related web-portals and responded to an online questionnaire. The results showed that affinity with technology and available monitoring devices were important predictors for active monitoring. Distinguishing PV households according to the PV installation period, we found that in pre-grid parity PV households, energy-saving behaviors were explained by active monitoring and environmental motivation. In post-grid parity PV households they were mainly influenced by load shifting activities and sufficiency attitudes. This indicates that different policy measures and implied financial incentives can influence PV monitoring and the relevant factors for energy-saving behaviors.