• Energy Research

Effectively reducing climate change requires marked, global behavior change. However, it is unclear which strategies are most likely to motivate people to change their climate beliefs and behaviors. Here, we tested 11 expert-crowdsourced interventions on four climate mitigation outcomes: beliefs, policy support, information sharing intention, and an effortful tree-planting behavioral task. Across 59,440 participants from 63 countries, the interventions’ effectiveness was small, largely limited to nonclimate skeptics, and differed across outcomes: Beliefs were strengthened mostly by decreasing psychological distance (by 2.3%), policy support by writing a letter to a future-generation member (2.6%), information sharing by negative emotion induction (12.1%), and no intervention increased the more effortful behavior—several interventions even reduced tree planting. Last, the effects of each intervention differed depending on people’s initial climate beliefs. These findings suggest that the impact of behavioral climate interventions varies across audiences and target behaviors.

Renewable energy (RE) sources are often locally available and have the potential to lessen the rural dependence on the national power grid, reducing disruptions in power supplies and the heavy dependence on coal combustion. Poland faces an EU mandate of a 15% share of renewables in energy generation by 2020. However, the installations intended to supply several types of RE encountered local opposition, forcing a cancellation of the planned investments and stressing a need for understanding rural residents’ attitudes towards RE in general. Using survey data, this paper examines the perception of RE importance among rural residents in eastern Poland. The specified empirical relationship includes the sociodemographic and economic characteristics of residents. Perceptions of the links between health and specific sources of environmental pollution and actions demonstrating energy-saving behavior serve as explanatory variables. The performance of the estimated logit equation was rigorously tested. The probability of attaching importance to RE by rural residents increases most if a respondent displayed an energy-saving behavior, has certain demographic characteristics, and links health to environmental pollution caused by coal combustion. The graphic depiction of the effects of selected variables succinctly communicates possible future programs aimed at strengthening the rural population support of RE.

Switching to energy mixes that use more non-fossil fuels is critical to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to tackle climate change. Climate change poses a major challenge to oil exporting Gulf countries, like the rest of the world, but research on human views on energy and climate change is limited. We aim to fill this gap by focusing on the UAE, a nation with a peculiar demographic composition that includes an overwhelming proportion of expatriates and transitions towards green and nuclear resources. We examine whether transiency of residence and life satisfaction play a role in influencing perceptions about climate change and energy sources. We also analyze how expatriates' opinions differ from UAE citizens who have significantly higher income and welfare benefits.

Nuclear energy is an energy source that is usually unfavourable among the public due to its inherent risks. However, it presents a number of benefits, including the possibility to reduce emissions ...

Heavy dependence on fossil fuels among rural households contributes to GHG emissions and air pollution while increasing landfill loads in Poland. This study examines benefits from the renewable energy utilization support program that subsidized household purchase and installation of thermal solar panels. This review of synergy between energy, climate, and air quality policies focuses on solar panel subsidies funded through the European Union and county governments in Mazowieckie Voivodship in Poland. County government offices, using the unpublished list of households receiving subsidies for thermal solar panel installation, mediated in the implementation of the survey and collected 123 completed questionnaires in May and June 2015. The heteroscedasticity-corrected OLS estimates two equations identifying and quantifying factors influencing the purchase price of solar panels and rural household monthly energy bill savings after installation using the gathered data. Among sociodemographic variables, increasing age was associated with an increasing price paid for the panels, but education was associated with paying a lower price for solar panels and lower self-reported energy bill savings. Panel purchase price increased if the respondent was a farmer, viewed subsidies as important, and preferred domestically manufactured panels. Location of household increased the price as compared to the reference county. Savings on monthly energy bills increased if respondent had a positive view of solar energy, expected a decrease in the bill following the purchase of panels, and heated large areas in the house. Subsidy programs have been important in increased household solar energy utilization, especially among farm households, while self-reported energy bill savings increased with positive attitudes towards renewable energy and the larger heated areas in rural residences.