Six Behaviors Policymakers Should Promote to Mitigate Climate Change

Abstract

Policymakers have a crucial role to play in averting climate catastrophe. Policies that rely on behavioral science principles to encourage individuals to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases can be an effective complement to broader top-down policies, such as charging for carbon emissions—provided that the behavior-based policies focus on actions with the highest potential to reduce emissions. We conducted an analysis to identify behaviors that have the greatest practical potential to reduce emissions in the United States and modeled the effects of their uptake. Our analysis identified six behaviors to prioritize: If adopted by 5%–10% of the U.S. population, these actions can collectively lower current national emissions by 464 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year, or 7% overall annually. We identify behavioral mechanisms that can inform policy design for promoting each of these behaviors.