Behavioural battlefronts: why the transition to a zero carbon economy needs psychology as well as technology

When it comes to humanity’s collective effort to tackle the climate crisis, wind turbines and solar panels are big success stories. Their average cost has dropped significantly over the past decade, they’re increasingly ubiquitous, and they’re undoubtedly powerful weapons as we work to build a zero carbon economy.

But there’s one problem: the technology itself is only part of the equation, and the much messier part involves people – their reactions, their feelings and their behaviours.

Take the case of solar panels – also known as photovoltaic (PV) panels. Despite their obvious benefits, how do people feel about solar farms when they are situated on green field sites and agricultural land, and can change local landscapes? Offshore wind turbines make good sense from a power generation standpoint, as we live on an island with an extensive coastline surrounded by shallow seas, but they do change the seascape, and onshore wind can be even more contentious.

“We need to appreciate that it can be challenging for people adapting to new technologies and we must consider them as part of the solution as well as just the engineering solution itself,” says Chris Sansom, professor of concentrating solar power at the University of Derby, whose research focuses on finding solutions for cleaner energy across the globe.

Sansom notes that zero carbon research is concerned with many different elements. The University of Derby has a range of leading experts exploring zero carbon in relation to decarbonising manufacturing and business processes, generating low-carbon renewable energy, transporting people by zero carbon means, as well as understanding natural processes for greenhouse gas removal. “While these may provide the scientific solutions we need, a number of things can get in the way of that,” he says – such as the challenges for local residents and other people who struggle to adapt.

A leader in his field, Sansom has experienced some of these challenges first-hand, including while working on a solar project in sub-Saharan Africa. Alongside researchers at the University of Derby, he has been exploring how expensive fossil fuel cookers can be replaced with lower-cost, low-carbon, efficient solar cookers. “I went to Kenya to visit and I’ve never seen so many coffee tables that looked remarkably like PV panels,” he says. “The problem is that people couldn’t fix them as they were high-cost and impossible to maintain. We hadn’t thought through how people were going to use the technology and what they would do if it went wrong. That’s why we are focused on developing innovative solutions, the kinds of technologies where they can be fixed locally.”

Similarly, when trialling solar cookers in India, Sansom experienced how cultural expectations can have an effect on how new technologies are received. The project, based in Rajasthan, explored how solar cookers could be used as an alternative to wood stoves. He found that while they were effective from an environmental perspective, it made the women in the communities he worked with – who would traditionally be tasked with collecting firewood – feel redundant and undervalued.

“Social and cultural norms shouldn’t be underestimated when planning a route to a new net zero carbon world. Many technologically sound interventions in developing countries have failed for that reason,” adds Sansom.

Do you have an idea for a novel research project or course syllabus that could supercharge humanity’s efforts to save the world? The University of Derby is challenging 16- to 24-year-olds to submit a short proposal, with the chance to win £1,000, and to partner with its academics to develop a MOOC (massive open online course). Find out more at derby.ac.uk

These kinds of challenges are instructive for anyone seeking to solve humanity’s most pressing problems. Simply turning up with a clever new technology or a scientific breakthrough is rarely enough; you also need to address people’s behavioural blockers – their resistance, reluctance, or any practical difficulties they may face.

The increasing need to consider the interplay of technological advances and behavioural changes can make efforts to tackle big global problems all the more challenging – and pressing.

Indeed, in recent years, wider efforts to tackle the climate crisis have been caught up in the broader culture wars, with societies polarised and divided despite the urgent need to act collectively. Opposition to net zero measures often comes from those who might face short-term financial pain from the transition to a low-carbon economy – for instance, individuals and businesses in areas that are economically reliant on the fossil fuel industry.

It’s clear that mitigating the climate breakdown therefore also requires a careful consideration of human psychology too. It calls for more multidisciplinary approaches that break through traditional subject silos and facilitate more joined-up thinking. The University of Derby has been encouraging students, researchers and academics alike to embrace that approach. For instance, it has launched an MSc in behaviour change to explore innovative ways of encouraging, enabling and supporting people to make better choices for themselves – acknowledging how behavioural factors are increasingly at the heart of both public policymaking and private sector business transitions.

“Studying at the University of Derby is more than just getting a degree: it is about rolling up your sleeves and developing the skills that will enable you to tackle today’s world of environmental and social challenges,” says Prof Warren Manning, provost – innovation and research at the university. Students have the unique opportunity to come up with novel approaches to meet big challenges. The University of Derby provides forums for empowering students, including an Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme, which gives all second-year students the chance to take part in a funded and supported research project.

It has also launched several applied initiatives in wider society. For instance, in 2017, it established the De-Carbonise project to work with local businesses in Derby and beyond to help put them on the path to net zero. “For many businesses, there is a strong correlation between the need to decarbonise and their energy usage,” says Manning. “A lot of businesses recognise that. What they struggle with is knowing what to do next.”

The challenge for many small-and medium-sized businesses is balancing the capital investment on zero carbon technologies and processes with more immediate financial pressures. But this is why Manning sees such value in De-Carbonise as a network that can help business owners make the necessary behavioural changes. “We get businesses to mentor each other,” says Manning. “We help them talk about what behavioural steps they can take, and think about the way they organise what they do, and the capital investments they make. Chief executives see other chief executives taking measures, and it makes them competitive. They say: ‘If that business over there can do it, we can do it as well’.”

Fostering this kind of constructive collective mentality is arguably incredibly powerful – after all, many behavioural and psychological blockers to change can stem from cognitive biases (or mental shortcuts) that can make people more tribal. These biases can reinforce people’s resistance to initiatives or information that causes them short-term pain or that challenges their own perspectives.

In a similar vein, the team at the University of Derby has learned the importance of thinking about how to frame climate messages – and that doesn’t necessarily mean starting with painting a picture of natural disasters, floods and the other miseries we can expect if we fail to reach our climate targets. “We need to balance that with an optimistic view of the future,” says Fred Paterson, associate professor of sustainable business and clean growth at the University of Derby, whose research is focused on pro-environmental business. He advocates a more subtle approach: “You start with where they’re at.”

And this means that scientists and politicians should perhaps try to view the world through the mindset of what it’s actually like being in business. “You don’t start with, ‘We need to be more morally correct and save the planet’, you start with what drives people,” says Paterson. “Let’s look at what reduces your expenses, let’s help your bottom line.”

So perhaps the real psychological lever when it comes to promoting climate action is to paint the climate not as a threat, but an opportunity. “Businesses that get ahead can get a competitive advantage by thinking about new products and services,” says Manning, pointing out that if we want to reach net zero, it is going to require a significant rebuilding of society, which means new business opportunities in, for example, the hydrogen economy or the battery economy to support the rollout of new technology. “Entrepreneurs should be thinking that this is a huge potential market,” he says. “There are new products and services, opportunities to be more competitive, and even cost savings.”

Paterson adds: “Today, green innovation pays off in the medium and long term, if not also as a short-term cost saver. So the inertia, the barriers to adoption, will be overcome by rethinking common practice and ‘what we’ve always done’.”

Do you have an idea for a novel research project or course syllabus that could supercharge humanity’s efforts to save the world? The University of Derby is challenging 16- to 24-year-olds to submit a short proposal, with the chance to win £1,000, and to partner with its academics to develop a MOOC (massive open online course). Find out more at derby.ac.uk