This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G

This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: • This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. • A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. • This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. • The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. • When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Promoting Lower-Carbon Lifestyles: The role of personal values, climate change communications and carbon allowances in processes of change Rachel Angharad Howell Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2012 1 Declaration This thesis and the papers within it have been composed by me and are my own work, except where otherwise stated. No part of this thesis has been submitted for any other degree or qualification. Rachel Howell September 2012 1 2 Abstract Climate change is a pressing problem and substantial reductions in the greenhouse gas emissions that cause it are necessary to avert the worst impacts predicted. The UK has targeted an 80% reduction from 1990 emissions levels by 2050. This thesis investigates how to promote behavioural changes that will reduce emissions associated with individuals’ lifestyles, which comprise a significant proportion of the UK total. The thesis begins by appraising whether and how climate change communications, specifically films, can succeed in changing attitudes and behaviour. The impacts on viewers of the film The Age of Stupid were assessed using a four- stage panel survey. Increased concern, motivation to act, and sense of agency felt immediately after seeing the film did not persist, but respondents reported some behavioural changes. The longer-term follow-up suggests that behavioural intentions do not necessarily translate into action, but also revealed issues concerning the reliability of participants’ causal attributions of their behaviour. These and other challenges of conducting longitudinal studies of behavioural change related to climate change communications are discussed. The thesis then uses a model of behavioural change transposed from health psychology to analyse the processes of change employed or depicted by four climate change films, in order to identify more generally the strengths and limitations of films as means to promote mitigation action, and to demonstrate the potential utility of the model in the field of pro- environmental behaviour change. The issue is then considered from the opposite angle, with an examination of what has motivated individuals who have already adopted lower-carbon lifestyles. Qualitative research reveals that protecting ‘the environment’ per se is not the primary value stimulating most interviewees’ action; typically they were more concerned about the impacts of climate change on people in developing countries. Although analysis of a survey instrument showed that biospheric values are important to the participants, they tended to score altruistic values significantly higher. Thus it may not be necessary to promote biospheric values to encourage lower-carbon lifestyles. 3 The final element of the work involved researching the opinions of members of Carbon Rationing Action Groups, seeking to understand what can be learned from their experiences of living with a carbon allowance, and the implications that the findings may have for potential government policies, especially personal carbon trading. The thesis concludes that, given the scale of action required, the difficulties individuals face when considering whether and how to adopt lower-carbon behaviours, and the limited impact of initiatives such as Carbon Rationing Action Groups and The Age of Stupid beyond a relatively small circle of people who tend to exhibit particular traits (such as a preference for frugality), significant UK emissions reductions will necessitate far-reaching legislation that will impact on everyday practices and behaviour. 4 Acknowledgements I am grateful to my supervisory team – Simon Allen, Pete Higgins, Dave Reay, and Charles Warren – for their time, advice, interest, and especially encouragement during the process of conducting this research and writing the papers and thesis. Simon deserves a special mention for alerting me to the studentship and enabling my application for it. Thanks to the Scottish Alliance for Geosciences, Environment and Society (SAGES) for funding the studentship, and to Bill Austin, SAGES Graduate School Convenor, for his kindness. Chapter 8 is based on work that I did for the Oxford University Environmental Change Institute, and I would like to thank Nick Eyre and Yael Parag, my colleagues there, for their advice on the design and original report of that study. I am very grateful to all the people who participated in my research projects, for giving their time and sharing their views with me. It was particularly enjoyable to meet with those I interviewed and I admire their efforts to live more sustainably. Dad kindly proofread the whole thesis for me, with satisfying pernicketiness. Others to whom I owe thanks for help with particular aspects of this work are named at the end of each of the relevant papers of this thesis (Chapters 4–8). Finally, I would like to acknowledge the influence of friends and family on my passion to discover, implement in my own life, and communicate to others effective, fair, and sustainable solutions to the problem of climate change. My upbringing and the guidance of parents, teachers, and other influential people instilled in me a thirst for social justice and consequent concern about this issue. Judith Lancaster has helped me to follow my passion, make decisions, and ‘keep my heart up’. To be alive to the threat we are facing from climate change, to care intensely about the fate of those who will suffer as a result, and to feel implicated in the responsibility for that suffering is, it often seems to me, to be awake in a nightmare world while everyone else sleeps on oblivious. However, this is not the case; I am thankful to know many people who are taking action, and to have been at the Yearly Meeting in August 2011 at which Quakers in Britain committed to becoming a ‘low-carbon, sustainable community’. I am very glad to have friends with whom I share this concern and commitment, and from whom I draw support and hope. 5 6 Contents Declaration ................................................................................................................... 1 Abstract ........................................................................................................................ 3 Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................... 5 List of tables ............................................................................................................... 11 List of figures ............................................................................................................. 13 Acronyms and abbreviations ...................................................................................... 15 Part One: Background Chapter 1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 19 1.1 Climate change and individuals’ lifestyles and behaviour .................... 19 1.2 Terminology .......................................................................................... 22 1.3 Research questions, aims and approach ................................................ 25 1.4 Structure of this thesis ........................................................................... 28 Chapter 2 Knowledge, attitudes, behaviour, and behavioural change: a review of literature relevant to promoting lower-carbon lifestyles ................................. 29 2.1 Public knowledge, understanding, and concern about climate change . 29 2.2 Models of behaviour ............................................................................. 36 2.3 Processes of behavioural change ........................................................... 54 2.4 Who are ‘the public’? Differentiation and segmentation of the population .............................................................................................. 58 2.5 Mass communication about climate change and lower-carbon lifestyles ................................................................................................ 65 2.6 Promoting lower-carbon behaviours and lifestyles ............................... 73 2.7 Implications of this review for the thesis .............................................. 84 Chapter 3 Methodology and methods ................................................................. 89 3.1 Rationale for the thesis aims ................................................................. 89 3.2 Methods and materials .......................................................................... 93 3.3 A brief outline of the papers ................................................................. 95 Part Two: The Papers Chapter 4 Lights, camera… action? Altered attitudes and

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