• Energy Research

Publiziert als Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future 5 (43 pp). Die Erstveröffentlichung (nur in Deutsch) erfolgte am 16. Dez. 2020, diese geringfügige Revision 1.1 (Deutsch und Englisch) am 16. Jan. 2021. GERMAN SUMMARY (English Summary further below): Die Zeit drängt. Ohne schnell wirksame Gegenmaßnahmen werden Erderhitzung und Biodiversitätsverlust Ausmaße annehmen, welche die Lebensweise von Menschen nicht abschätzbaren Risiken aussetzen. Obwohl die Herausforderungen weiten Teilen der Bevölkerung bewusst sind, werden dringend nötige Entscheidungen aufgeschoben oder nur teilweise umgesetzt. Eine Ursache hierfür sind fehlende Foren, in denen sich Bürger:innen mit Expert:innen austauschen und gemeinsam mögliche Szenarien und Lösungen erörtern können. Scientists for Future empfiehlt deshalb, mit geeigneten Formen von Bürger:innenversammlungen eine breite und demokratisch partizipative Beteiligung an Zukunftsgestaltung und -sicherung zu ermöglichen. Diese sollten auch unabhängig von einem Auftrag von Regierung oder Parlament initiiert werden. Wir rufen daher zu einem Gründungstreffen auf, um Planung und Durchführung einer Bürger:innenversammlung zum Thema Klima im Jahr 2021 zu ermöglichen. Eine sorgfältige Planung ist nötig, damit die Durchführung neutral und offen geschieht. Hierfür werden einige zentrale Kriterien beschrieben. ENGLISH SUMMARY: Time is pressing. Without quick and effective countermeasures, global warming and loss of biodiversity will assume proportions that expose people’s way of life to incalculable risks. Although large parts of the population are aware of the challenges, urgently needed decisions are postponed or only partially implemented. One reason for this is the lack of forums where citizens can discuss possible scenarios and solutions with experts. Therefore, Scientists for Future recommends enabling a broad and democratic participatory involvement in shaping and securing the future by appropriate forms of citizens’ assemblies. These should also be initiated independently of a mandate from government or parliament. We therefore call for a founding meeting to enable the planning and implementation of a citizens’ assembly on the topic of climate in 2021. A careful planning is necessary, so that the execution happens neutrally and openly. For this purpose, some central criteria are described. ___ Suggested citation: Hagedorn, G.; Baasch, S., Blöbaum, A., Brendel, H., Hardt, J.N., Heiland, S. Klins­mann, M., Matthies, E., Pfennig, A., West, C., Wipfler, B., et al., (2021). Scientists for Future empfiehlt eine reprä­sen­ta­tive Klima-Bürger:innen­ver­sammlung im Jahr 2021 / Scientists for Future recommends a representative Climate Citizens’ Assem­bly in 2021 (Version 1.1, in Deutsch/German & Englisch/English). Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future, 5, 23 pp. doi:10.5281/zenodo.4417265. Volume 5 of "Diskussionsbeiträge der Scientists for Future". This publication contains both the German original text and an English translation.

© 2013 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. This is the authors' accepted and refereed manuscript to the article.

Abstract The acceptability of low carbon policies is an important precondition for energy system transitions, such as the German Energiewende. This long-term experimental study examines the potential for behavioural spillover on the acceptability of low carbon policies, caused by a framed intervention to promote electricity saving behaviour. Clients of a German energy provider were randomly assigned to continuously receive electricity saving tips with either monetary framing (saving potential in €) or environmental framing (saving potential in CO2). The control group did not receive any information. In two follow-up surveys, four (N=333) and nine months (N=258) later, participants rated the acceptability of several low carbon policies. A pre-survey assessed the personal ecological norm for saving electricity. Participants with strong personal ecological norms reported generally higher policy acceptability. After environmental framing they also indicated higher acceptability compared to the monetary framing or control group. These results indicate that information campaigns should be designed carefully in order to promote positive spillover effects. Environmental framing of private-sphere behaviour can increase the disposition for further pro-environmental behaviour in the public sphere, e.g. policy acceptability. When appealing to monetary benefits in pro-environmental behaviour, there is a risk of inhibiting positive spillover effects.

The mobility sector was one of the sectors most affected by COVID-19 and its political restrictions, with, inter alia a huge drop in mobility behavior due to travel bans, lockdowns, and a reduced need to be mobile. The present study examined the potential of COVID-19 restrictions aiming at containing the spread of the virus to be a window of opportunity for the transition toward sustainable mobility by breaking up strongly habitualized daily and travel mobility behaviors through changes of behavioral contexts. We conducted an online survey in a sample representative for the German population (N = 3092) to study the consequences of the COVID-19 restrictions on Germans' daily and travel mode choices and on their wishes for future mobility. Furthermore, we examined the moderating effects of Germans' personal norms to protect the climate on changes in their mobility behavior toward sustainable mobility, both within and beyond the corona pandemic. In line with previous research, the present study shows an overall reduction of mobility across almost all modes of transport for daily and travel mobility during time periods of COVID-19 restrictions compared to pre-COVID-19-times, with different transport modes being affected differently. Our findings additionally point out the relevance of personal norms to protect the climate for the transition toward sustainable mobility behavior. Altogether, the present study provides first empirical evidence for the corona pandemic to represent a window of opportunity for the transition toward sustainable mobility. Furthermore, the study also points out relevant directions for further research.

The Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) have a key role to play in understanding which factors and policies would motivate, encourage and enable different actors to adopt a wide range of sustainable energy behaviours and support the required system changes and policies. The SSH can provide critical insights into how consumers could be empowered to consistently engage in sustainable energy behaviour, support and adopt new technologies, and support policies and changes in energy systems. Furthermore, they can increase our understanding of how organisations such as private and public institutions, and groups and associations of people can play a key role in the sustainable energy transition. We identify key questions to be addressed that have been identified by the Platform for Energy Research in the Socio-economic Nexus (PERSON, see person.eu), including SSH scholars who have been studying energy issues for many years. We identify three main research themes. The first research theme involves understanding which factors encourage different actors to engage in sustainable energy behaviour. The second research theme focuses on understanding which interventions can be effective in encouraging sustainable energy behaviour of different actors, and which factors enhance their effects. The third research theme concerns understanding which factors affect public and policy support for energy policy and changes in energy systems, and how important public concerns can best be addressed as to reduce or prevent resistance.

Abstract A web-based intervention program for changing habitual energy-relevant behavior was tested at workplaces of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). In a web portal an intervention package was provided, that had proven to be successful in past field studies. For analyzing the usability of this platform, the HEIs implemented the intervention program autonomously. The intervention was established at five HEIs (23 buildings). Intervention outcomes were operationalized by measuring the development of energy consumption. Considerable outcome differences were found between the participating HEIs. These might be based on implementation differences. To assess possible relationships between implementation and outcome differences, data regarding implementation issues had been collected by questionnaires and in workshops with HEI representatives. By tendency we found lower levels of implementation (i.e. reducing the intervention materials) and lower levels of participation to decrease the interventions' outcomes. Additionally, indications showed that cultural differences due to the HEIs location might have influenced implementation levels and the interventions' outcomes respectively.

Individuals can support climate-change mitigation in many ways, e.g., through private-sphere behaviors or the support of political measures. We assume that the common climate-change-mitigation heuristic of restriction does not sufficiently support impactful mitigation intentions and therefore introduce and investigate a new heuristic (optimization heuristic.) In a cross-sectional survey with N = 1427 participants (representative of the German population with regard to age, gender, education), we developed two scales to measure the heuristics of restriction and optimization. As individual climate-change-mitigation intentions, we recorded four types of private-sphere behavior, activism, and three forms of policy support. Further psychological variables (personal norm, biospheric value orientation) and sociodemographic variables were recorded. The factorial structure of all concepts was assessed by means of confirmatory factor analyses. Hierarchical regression analyses with the climate-change-mitigation intentions as the criterion were carried out. Results support the assumption of two related, yet distinct, climate-change-mitigation heuristics that were highly correlated with biospheric value orientation. We additionally computed measure of the dominance of the restriction heuristic. This variable had no correlation with biospheric values, and correlated with the intentions in the expected ways, indicating that individuals with a dominant restriction heuristic tend to show lower scores of impactful climate-change-mitigation intentions.

With respect to changes in the energy systems of many countries, electricity consumption in households is an important topic. Extensive research has investigated the various determinants of electricity consumption. However, insights into how specific sociodemographic, behavioural, and attitudinal determinants influence residential electricity consumption are still scarce. In this study, we used hierarchical regression analysis to systematically investigate these determinants (including household engagement in electricity saving) along with a wide range of other measures in a sample of German households (N=763). Special attention was given to households with adolescents and children by analysing the influence of the number of adolescents on electricity consumption in a path model. Our results indicate that sociodemographic influences can be explained by the purchasing and use behaviours of residents. Our findings also suggest that the use of behavioural information provides a more detailed picture of the conditions of electricity consumption and thus allows for more appropriate policy planning.