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Despite three decades of political efforts and a wealth of research on the causes and catastrophic impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise and are 60% higher today than they were in 1990. Exploring this rise through nine thematic lenses—covering issues of climate governance, the fossil fuel industry, geopolitics, economics, mitigation modeling, energy systems, inequity, lifestyles, and social imaginaries—draws out multifaceted reasons for our collective failure to bend the global emissions curve. However, a common thread that emerges across the reviewed literature is the central role of power, manifest in many forms, from a dogmatic political-economic hegemony and influential vested interests to narrow techno-economic mindsets and ideologies of control. Synthesizing the various impediments to mitigation reveals how delivering on the commitments enshrined in the Paris Agreement now requires an urgent and unprecedented transformation away from today's carbon- and energy-intensive development paradigm.

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration, established to provide an independent, global monitoring system dedicated to tracking the emerging health profile of the changing climate. The 2020 report presents 43 indicators across five sections: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. This report represents the findings and consensus of the 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies that make up the Lancet Countdown, and draws on the expertise of climate scientists, geographers, and engineers; of energy, food, and transport experts; and of economists, social and political scientists, data scientists, public health professionals, and doctors.

A positive and reciprocal relationship between subjective wellbeing and pro-environmental behaviour (PEB) has been observed across a range of countries worldwide. There is good reason however to think that the nature of the PEB-wellbeing link might vary between individuals and cross-culturally. We use data obtained in Brazil, China, Denmark, India, Poland, South Africa and the UK (total n = 6969) to test a series of hypotheses using pre-registered regression models. First, we assess the relationship between PEB and wellbeing across countries, and test the ‘privilege’ hypothesis that this varies according to personal income and a country's level of development. Second, we consider the role of individual values and motivations in relation to PEB and wellbeing. To this end, we test the ‘enhancement’ hypothesis, in which the PEB-wellbeing link is strengthened by people holding particular values and motivations. Third, we consider the role of cultural differences for the nature of the PEB-wellbeing link. We test the ‘social green’ hypothesis that public sphere behaviours (e.g. addressing environmental issues with other people) are more closely linked to wellbeing than are private sphere behaviours (e.g. product purchasing) in collectivistic cultures; in tandem, we assess whether private sphere behaviours are more closely linked to wellbeing in individualistic cultures. We obtain strong evidence for a PEB-wellbeing link across nations. There is partial evidence across countries to support the ‘social green’ hypothesis, but little evidence for the ‘privilege’ or ‘enhancement’ hypotheses. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding the relationship between PEB and wellbeing, and consider how its promotion might feature in environmental and public health policy.

In recent decades, greater acknowledgement has been given to climate change as a cultural phenomenon. This paper takes a cultural lens to the topic of climate change, in which climate-relevant understandings are grounded in wider cultural, political and material contexts. We approach climate-relevant accounts at the level of the everyday, understood as a theoretically problematic and politically contested space This is in contrast to simply being the backdrop to mundane, repetitive actions contributing to environmental degradation and the site of mitigative actions. Taking discourse as a form of practice in which fragments of cultural knowledge are drawn on to construct our environmental problems, we investigate citizens’ accounts of climate-relevant issues in three culturally diverse emerging economies: Brazil, South Africa and China. These settings are important because greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are predicted to significantly increase in these countries in the future. We conducted semi-structured interviews with a range of citizens in each country using a narrative approach to contextualise climate-relevant issues as part of people’s lifestyle narratives. Participants overwhelmingly framed their accounts in the context of locally-salient issues, and few accounts explicitly referred to the phenomenon of climate change. Instead, elements of climate changes were conflated with other environmental issues and related to a wide range of cultural assumptions that influenced understandings and implied particular ways of responding to environmental problems. We conclude that climate change scholars should address locally relevant understandings and develop dialogues that can wider meanings that construct climate-relevant issues in vernacular ways at the local level. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10584-019-02477-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

The proportion of the world’s population exposed to above-average monthly temperatures has been rising consistently in recent decades and will continue to grow. This and similar trends make it more likely that people will personally experience extreme weather events and seasonal changes related to climate change. A question that follows from this is to what extent experiences may influence climate-related beliefs, attitudes, and the willingness to act. Although research is being done to examine the effects of such experiences, many of these studies have two important shortcomings. First, they propose effects of experiences but remain unclear on the psychological processes that underlie those effects. Second, if they do make assumptions about psychological processes, they do not typically corroborate them with empirical evidence. In other words, a considerable body of research in this field rests on relatively unfounded intuitions. To advance the theoretical understanding of how experiences of climate change could affect the motivation to act on climate change, we introduce a conceptual framework that organizes insights from psychology along three clusters of processes: 1) noticing and remembering, 2) mental representations, and 3) risk processing and decision-making. Within each of these steps, we identify and explicate psychological processes that could occur when people personally experience climate change, and we formulate theory-based, testable hypotheses. By making assumptions explicit and tying them to findings from basic and applied research from psychology, this paper provides a solid basis for future research and for advancing theory.

The Lancet Countdown is an international collaboration that independently monitors the health consequences of a changing climate. Publishing updated, new, and improved indicators each year, the Lancet Countdown represents the consensus of leading researchers from 43 academic institutions and UN agencies. The 44 indicators of this report expose an unabated rise in the health impacts of climate change and the current health consequences of the delayed and inconsistent response of countries around the globe—providing a clear imperative for accelerated action that puts the health of people and planet above all else.\ud \ud The 2021 report coincides with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26), at which countries are facing pressure to realise the ambition of the Paris Agreement to keep the global average temperature rise to 1·5°C and to mobilise the financial resources required for all countries to have an effective climate response. These negotiations unfold in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic—a global health crisis that has claimed millions of lives, affected livelihoods and communities around the globe, and exposed deep fissures and inequities in the world's capacity to cope with, and respond to, health emergencies. Yet, in its response to both crises, the world is faced with an unprecedented opportunity to ensure a healthy future for all.

Aviation is a fast-growing sector, releasing more carbon dioxide per passenger kilometre than other transport modes. For climate change researchers, work-related travel – including for conferences and fieldwork – is a major carbon-emitting activity. At the same time, many argue that climate scientists have an important role in curbing their own aviation emissions to align their practices with their assertions in relation to emissions reduction. We examine the tensions between competing professional demands in relation to flying; measure levels of flying by climate and non-climate researchers; assess influences on choices and attitudes; and consider how information provision and structural changes might enable changes in practice. Study 1 entails a large, international survey of flying undertaken by climate change (including sustainability and environmental science) researchers and those from other disciplines (N = 1408). Study 2 tests effects of varying information provision on researchers’ behavioural intentions and policy support to reduce flying (N = 362). Unexpectedly, we find climate change researchers – particularly professors – fly more than other researchers, but are also more likely to have taken steps to reduce or offset their flying. Providing information about the impacts of aviation increases behavioural intentions and support for institutional policies to reduce flying, particularly amongst more pro-environmental respondents. However, while attitudinal factors (e.g., personal norm) predict willingness to reduce flying, structural/social factors (e.g., family commitments, location) are more important in predicting actual flying behaviour. Recent initiatives to develop a low-carbon and more inclusive research culture within climate science and the broader research community thus need to be supported by broader policies and technologies to encourage and enable low-carbon and avoided travel.

Addressing climate change requires profound behaviour change, not only in consumer action, but also in action as members of communities and organisations, and as citizens who can influence policies. However, while many behavioural models exist to explain and predict mitigation and adaptation behaviours, we argue that their utility in establishing meaningful change is limited due to their being too reductive, individualistic, linear, deliberative and blind to environmental impact. This has led to a focus on suboptimal intervention strategies, particularly informational approaches. Addressing the climate crisis requires a focus on high-impact behaviours and high-emitting groups; interdisciplinary interventions that address the multiple drivers, barriers and contexts of behaviour; and timing to ensure interventions are targeted to moments of change when habits are weaker.

Non-technical summary ‘Discourses of climate delay’ pervade current debates on climate action. These discourses accept the existence of climate change, but justify inaction or inadequate efforts. In contemporary discussions on what actions should be taken, by whom and how fast, proponents of climate delay would argue for minimal action or action taken by others. They focus attention on the negative social effects of climate policies and raise doubt that mitigation is possible. Here, we outline the common features of climate delay discourses and provide a guide to identifying them.

The file attached to this record is the author's final peer reviewed version. The Publisher's final version can be found by following the DOI link. The literature suggests that extreme weather experiences have potential to increase climate change engagement by influencing the way people perceive the proximity and implications of climate change. Yet, limited attention has been directed at investigating how individual differences in the subjective interpretation of extreme weather events as indications of climate change moderate the link between extreme weather experiences and climate change attitudes. This article contends that subjective attribution of extreme weather events to climate change is a necessary condition for extreme weather experiences to be translated into climate change mitigation responses, and that subjective attribution of extreme weather to climate change is influenced by the psychological and social contexts in which individuals appraise their experiences with extreme weather. Using survey data gathered in the aftermath of severe flooding across the UK in winter 2013/2014, personal experience of this flooding event is shown to only directly predict perceived threat from climate change, and indirectly predict climate change mitigation responses, among individuals who subjectively attributed the floods to climate change. Additionally, subjective attribution of the floods to climate change is significantly predicted by pre-existing climate change belief, political affiliation and perceived normative cues. Attempts to harness extreme weather experiences as a route to engaging the public must be attentive to the heterogeneity of opinion on the attributability of extreme weather events to climate change.

The rapid development of groundwater systems as part of urban water supplies around the globe is raising critical questions regarding the sustainable management of this essential resource. Yet, in many major cities, the absence of an effective policy regime means that the practice of groundwater exploitation is driven by the actions of domestic households and drilling contractors. Understanding what shapes the decisions and practices of these actors, their understandings of the groundwater resource and the extent to which scientific knowledge shapes this understanding, is an area of critical importance that is currently under-researched. Using a mixed-methods methodology, the paper explores domestic practices of groundwater abstraction in Lagos, Nigeria. It finds that there is a disjuncture between the households who are actively shaping exploitation of the groundwater resource on a day-to-day basis and science and state actors. This disjuncture results in household decisions that are influenced by commonly held, but potentially outdated, perceptions of the groundwater resource rather than scientific evidence or policy instruments. The unseen nature of groundwater resources effectively renders the scale of changing groundwater conditions invisible to households and the state, adding to the challenge of influencing practice. Addressing this disjuncture requires not just more scientific knowledge, but also the active construction of interfaces with, and between, non-state actors through which knowledge can be confronted, discussed and shared.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has encouraged psychologists to become part of the integrated scientific effort to support the achievement of climate change targets such as keeping within 1.5°C or 2°C of global warming. To date, the typical psychological approach has been to demonstrate that specific concepts and theories can predict behaviors that contribute to or mitigate climate change. Psychologists need to go further and, in particular, show that integrating psychological concepts into feasible interventions can reduce greenhouse gas emissions far more than would be achieved without such integration. While critiquing some aspects of current approaches, we describe psychological research that is pointing the way by distinguishing different types of behavior, acknowledging sociocultural context, and collaborating with other disciplines. Engaging this challenge offers psychologists new opportunities for promoting mitigation, advancing psychological understanding, and developing better interdisciplinary interactions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

There is now a large body of research into public understanding of climate change and energy challenges. There is however little empirical examination of how actors from politics, government, civil society and non-governmental organisations regard the role of public engagement in climate and energy policy. Research is lacking as to their views on the desirability of active citizen participation or indeed whether they draw on the findings from social science research in forming strategies and policy. This paper presents an analysis of interviews with policy experts and deliberative seminars held with non-governmental stakeholders acting in an intermediary capacity between climate policy and the public. A comparison of four policy scenarios was used to explore intermediaries’ beliefs about the role of the public in delivering the UK’s Climate Change Act targets. The results reveal a general antipathy to policies that seek to ‘engage’ the public and a lack of knowledge amongst seminar participants about how insights from the social sciences can be used to build and sustain public engagement. This research exposes the need to assess the means by which public engagement can better be understood, integrated and most effectively utilised for sustainable progression towards climate targets.

The Lancet Countdown is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement.\ud The 2019 report presents an annual update of 41 indicators across five key domains: climate change impacts, exposures, and vulnerability; adaptation, planning, and resilience for health; mitigation actions and health co-benefits; economics and finance; and public and political engagement. The report represents the findings and consensus of 35 leading academic institutions and UN agencies from every continent. Each year, the methods and data that underpin the Lancet Countdown's indicators are further developed and improved, with updates described at each stage of this report. The collaboration draws on the world-class expertise of climate scientists; ecologists; mathematicians; engineers; energy, food, and transport experts; economists; social and political scientists; public health professionals; and doctors, to generate the quality and diversity of data required.\ud The science of climate change describes a range of possible futures, which are largely dependent on the degree of action or inaction in the face of a warming world. The policies implemented will have far-reaching effects in determining these eventualities, with the indicators tracked here monitoring both the present-day effects of climate change, as well as the worldwide response. Understanding these decisions as a choice between one of two pathways—one that continues with the business as usual response and one that redirects to a future that remains “well below 2°C”—helps to bring the importance of recognising the effects of climate change and the necessary response to the forefront.\ud Evidence provided by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the International Energy Agency, and the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration clarifies the degree and magnitude of climate change experienced today and contextualises these two pathways.

There is growing research interest in behavioral spillover and its potential for enabling more widespread lifestyle change than has typically been achieved through discrete behavioral interventions. There are some routes by which spillover could take place without conscious attention or explicit recognition of the connections between separate behaviors. However, in many cases there is an expectation that an individual will perceive behaviors to be conceptually related, specifically in terms of their compensatory (suppressing further action) or catalyzing (promoting further action) properties, as a prerequisite for both negative and positive spillover. Despite this, relatively little research has been carried out to assess the beliefs that may underpin spillover processes as held by individuals themselves, or to measure these directly. We develop and evaluate a survey-based instrument for this purpose, doing so in a sample of seven countries worldwide: Brazil, China, Denmark, India, Poland, South Africa, and the United Kingdom (approx. 1,000 respondents per country). This approach allows us to assess these measures and to compare findings between countries. As part of this, we consider the connections between beliefs about behavioral relationships, and other key variables such as pro-environmental identity and personal preferences. We observe higher levels of endorsement of compensatory beliefs than previous research, and even higher levels of endorsement of novel items assessing catalyzing beliefs. For the first time, we present evidence of the validity of such measures with respect to comparable constructs, and in relation to people’s consistency across different types of behaviors. We reflect on the implications of considering the relationships between behaviors in the context of people’s subjective beliefs and offer recommendations for developing this line of research in the broader context of spillover research and within a cross-cultural framework.

The direct and indirect impacts of global climate change entail serious consequences for global biophysical and social systems, including the health, well-being and sustainability of communities. These impacts are especially serious for vulnerable groups in economically developing societies. While climate change is a global phenomenon, it is at the local level that impacts are most felt, and from where responses to climate change are enacted. It is increasingly urgent that communities possess the capacity to respond to climate change, now and in the future. Community representations of climate-relevant issues are critical to underpinning responses. Environmental representations do not directly reflect actual physical conditions but are interpreted through social and cultural layers of understanding that shape environmental issues. This paper investigates environmental and climate-relevant perceptions within two communities in the Terai region of Nepal; the city of Bharatpur and the village of Kumroj in Chitwan Province. Following mixed findings on levels of climate change awareness in Nepal, we set out to explore perspectives on the environment and climate change awareness by conducting 30 qualitative interviews with local people. The study found that issues linked to sanitation and cleanliness were most important in both communities, while reports of temperature and weather changes were less common and typically linked to local causes rather than climate change. Imagined futures were also closely related to current environmental issues affecting communities and did not discuss climate change, though temperature and weather changes were anticipated. However, when talk of climate change was deliberately elicited, participants displayed their awareness, though this was rarely linked to local conditions. We conclude that, in light of other pressing local issues, climate change is yet to penetrate the environmental representations of some communities and there is a need to address the disconnect between local issues and global climate change. Making climate change relevant at the local level by connecting to salient local issues and co-benefits comprises an important step in bridging the gap between more global awareness and its relevance more locally, particularly for communities at risk.

This paper examines the content and responses to an art installation addressing climate change in the Pacific, collected at the Adapt and Survive exhibition held at the University of the South Pacific Oceania Centre Gallery in 2014. The artist statement on the exhibition emphasised that it sought to explore the causes and effects of climate change, and to raise awareness of its wider impacts for cultural loss and societal change. As well as conducting a series of interviews with the artist, visitors to the exhibition were invited to complete a short survey concerning their thoughts about climate change and reactions to the exhibition, both before and after they viewed the artworks. The artist’s perspectives emphasised the significance of climate change for the region, in the context of traditional responses to environmental problems. The audience survey results suggest that there were high levels of agreement among visitors that the place where they live is being affected by climate change. While emphasising both negative and positive emotional reactions to the artworks, people for the most part expressed confidence and hope that climate change can be effectively addressed, although there was uncertainty on whether or not Pacific islands had the resources to do so. Our study is limited by the small sample size available, but points to directions for future research in this under-developed field.

PurposeThis study aims to investigate the role of the visual arts for communicating climate change in the context of the Pacific islands, through the perspectives of artists and climate change practitioners.Design/methodology/approachAs part of an “Eco Arts” project carried out in Fiji, semi-structured research interviews were undertaken with artists and climate change practitioners.FindingsParticipants’ motivations to produce art reflected their personal concerns about, and experiences of, climate change. There was an intention to use art-based approaches to raise awareness and promote action on climate change. The artwork produced drew on metaphors and storytelling to convey future climate impacts and aspects of climate change relevant to Fijian and Pacific communities.Research limitations/implicationsThe study reports the perspectives of participants and discusses the potential uses of arts communication. Conclusions cannot be drawn from the findings regarding the effectiveness of specific artwork or of arts communication as a general approach.Practical implicationsThe research offers suggestions for the inclusion of creative approaches to climate change communication within education and vocational training. A consideration of the perspectives of artist–practitioners has implications for the design and conduct of climate change communication.Social implicationsThe involvement of artist–practitioners in the communication of climate change offers the potential for novel discussions and interpretations of climate change with individuals and within communities, which complement more formal or scientific communication.Originality/valueThe present study identifies the motivations and objectives of artist–practitioners involved in climate change communication. The authors highlight the role of personal experience and their use of artistic concepts and creative considerations pertinent to the geography and culture of the Pacific region.

Public understanding of climate change has been a topic of environmental social sciences research since the early 1990s. To date, temporal change in climate change understanding has been approached almost exclusively using quantitative, survey-based methodologies, which indicate that people's responses on a limited number of measures have indeed altered in response to changing circumstances. However, quantitative longitudinal evidence can be criticised for presenting an overly simplistic view of people's beliefs and values. The current study is the first to explore changes in public understanding over an extended time period using in-depth qualitative methods. The study utilises a novel longitudinal methodology to explore changes in discourses across six separate datasets collected over the period 1997-2010, comprising a total of 208 public participants from across Great Britain. We find for the first time that discourses regarding the relevance of climate change to everyday life, and concerning rationales for personal action have exhibited subtle but important shifts over this period. By contrast, other aspects of public understanding have exhibited considerable stability over time, particularly with respect to ethical principles concerning stewardship of nature, justice and fairness. We conclude by distinguishing between three scales of change in public understanding of climate change: relatively short-lived movements in attitudes as revealed by survey data and influenced by transitory phenomena; slower shifts in public discourses that track changing cultural contexts; and enduring ways of understanding climate change that are tied to longer-term ethical foundations.

There is increasing awareness of the need to meaningfully engage society in efforts to tackle marine conservation challenges. Public perceptions research (PPR) in a marine conservation context provides tools to see the sea through the multiple lenses with which society interprets both the marine environment and marine conservation efforts. Traditionally, PPR is predominantly a social science which has considerable interdisciplinarity, owing to the variety of disciplines which contribute to its delivery and benefit from its outputs. Similarly, the subjects of a marine application of PPR are diverse, and relate to public perceptions of any marine component or activity. Evidence shows this is a growing area of science, and the paper presents a qualitative approach to addressing key questions to inform the continuing development of this field through a workshop held at the Third International Marine Conservation Congress 2014. Key findings are discussed under the themes of 1) the benefits of PPR to marine conservation; 2) priorities for PPR to support marine conservation; 3) making PPR accessible to marine practitioners and policy makers; and 4) interdisciplinary research collaboration to deliver PPR. The workshop supported the development of a framework which illustrates: the key conditions which can support PPR to take place; the types of research which PPR can be used to address; the applications of PPR findings for marine conservation; and the types of marine conservation benefits which can be delivered. As PPR gains an increasing presence in marine conservation, it is hoped that this discussion and framework will support researchers and practitioners to identify opportunities for PPR to deliver benefits, and to work together to achieve these.

Understanding public perceptions of climate change is critical in order to develop effective communication strategies, democratic policies, and socially robust technologies. This chapter provides an overview of research on the nature and dynamics of public perceptions of climate change. Awareness about climate change has become widespread over the last few decades, although concern has been variable over time and internationally. Skepticism about the reality and severity of climate change is low overall among the public worldwide, though it grew in some Western nations in the late 2000s, particularly among more right-leaning constituencies. Factors influencing public perceptions include weather and weather events, economic factors, sociopolitical events and media coverage, and individual-level factors, particularly a person’s worldviews and ideology. There has been a reliance on survey research in this field, and future work should expand the role for other methods and allied disciplines (e.g., ethnography, neuroscience).

This research presents three case studies, through which a creative approach to developing dialogue around climate change is outlined. By working with three distinct communities and encouraging them to discuss and write poetry about how climate change affects them, we demonstrate how such an approach might be adopted at this level. By analysing the discussions and poetry that arose out of these workshops we show how this community-level approach to communicating climate change is an essential counterpart to wider-scale quantitative research. The engagement of each community with climate change is dependent on the lived experiences of their members; a failure to recognise this results in less effective communications and can also cause communities to feel isolated and helpless. By considering the individual needs and aspirations of these communities we can support effective dialogue around the topic of climate change, and in doing so can better engender positive action against the negative effects of anthropogenic climate change.

Urgent and radical transition to lower-carbon forms of society is imperative to limit current and future climate change impacts. Behavioural spillover theory offers a way to catalyse broad lifestyle change from one behaviour to another in ways that generate greater impacts than piecemeal interventions. Despite growing policy and research attention, the evidence for behavioural spillover and the processes driving the phenomenon are unclear. The literature is split between studies that provide evidence for positive spillover effects (where an intervention targeting an environmentally-conscious behaviour leads to an increase in another functionally related behaviour) and negative spillover effects (where an intervention targeting an environmentally-conscious behaviour leads to a decrease in another functionally-related behaviour). In summarising findings, particular attention is given to the implications for climate-relevant behaviours. While few examples of climate-relevant behavioural spillover exist, studies do report positive and negative spillovers to other actions, as well as spillovers from behaviour to support for climate change policy. There is also some evidence that easier behaviours can lead to more committed actions. The potential contribution of social practice theory to understanding spillover is discussed, identifying three novel pathways to behavioural spillover: via carriers of practices, materiality, and through relationships between practices within wider systems of practice. In considering future research directions, the relatively neglected role of social norms is discussed as a means to generate the momentum required for substantial lifestyle change, and as a way of circumventing obstructive and intransigent climate change beliefs.

The environmental and economic imperatives to dematerialize economies, or ‘do more with less’, have been established for some years. Yet, to date, little is known about the personal drivers associated with dematerializing. This paper explores the prevalence and profile of those who are taking action to reduce consumption in different cultural contexts (UK and Brazil) and considers influences on dematerialization behaviours. We find that exemplar behaviours (avoiding buying new things and avoiding packaging) are far less common than archetypal environmental behaviours (e.g. recycling), but also that cultural context is important (Brazilians are more likely to reduce their material consumption than people in the UK). We also find that the two dematerialization behaviours are associated with different pro-environmental actions (more radical action versus green consumption, respectively); and have distinct, but overlapping, psychological (e.g. identity) and socio-demographic (e.g. education) predictors. Comparing a more traditional value-identity model of pro-environmental behaviour with a motivation-based (self-determination) model, we find that the latter explains somewhat more variance than the former. However, overall, little variance is explained, suggesting that additional factors at the personal and structural levels are important for determining these consumption behaviours. We conclude by outlining policy implications and avenues for further research. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Material demand reduction’.

The winter of 2013/2014 saw a series of severe storms hit the UK, leading to widespread flooding, a major emergency response and extensive media exposure. Previous research indicates that experiencing extreme weather events has the potential to heighten engagement with climate change, however the process by which this occurs remains largely unknown, and establishing a clear causal relationship from experience to perceptions is methodologically challenging. The UK winter flooding offered a natural experiment to examine this question in detail. We compare individuals personally affected by flooding (n = 162) to a nationally representative sample (n = 975). We show that direct experience of flooding leads to an overall increased salience of climate change, pronounced emotional responses and greater perceived personal vulnerability and risk perceptions. We also present the first evidence that direct flooding experience can give rise to behavioural intentions beyond individual sustainability actions, including support for mitigation policies, and personal climate adaptation in matters unrelated to the direct experience. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10584-016-1837-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Climate change is often referred to as one of the most complicated challenges facing humanity, characterised in various literatures as a social dilemma operating at multiple scales (individual, national, international). The present study considers the ways in which members of the public interpret climate change in these terms, drawing on data from multiple datasets, both qualitative and quantitative, from 1997 to 2011. As well as drawing out the nuances in participants’ perspectives on the social and societal dilemmas inherent to climate change, the present study also highlights the rejoinders and resolutions proposed by people to these dilemmas. It is suggested that recognition of the ways people find to navigate these difficult issues offers some cause for optimism regarding the public’s conceptualisation of, and response to, climate change.

Public engagement with climate change is critical for maintaining the impetus for meaningful emissions cuts. Ocean acidification (OA) is increasingly recognized by marine scientists as an important, but often overlooked, consequence of anthropogenic emissions1, 2. Although substantial evidence now exists concerning people’s understanding of climate change more generally3, very little is known about public perceptions of OA. Here, for the first time, we characterize in detail people’s understanding of this topic using survey data obtained in Great Britain (n = 2,501) during 2013 and 2014. We draw on theories of risk perception and consider how personal values influence attitudes towards OA. We find that public awareness of OA is very low compared to that of climate change, and was unaffected by the publication of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. Using an experimental approach, we show that providing basic information can heighten concern about OA, however, we find that attitude polarization along value-based lines may occur if the topic is explicitly associated with climate change. We discuss the implications of our findings for public engagement with OA, and the importance of learning lessons from communications research relating to climate change.

A comparative experiment in the UK examined people's willingness to change energy consumption behavior under three different policy framings: energy tax, carbon tax, and personal carbon allowances (PCA). PCA is a downstream cap-and-trade policy proposed in the UK, in which emission rights are allocated to individuals. We hypothesized that due to economic, pro-environmental and mental accounting drivers PCA would have greater potential to deliver emissions reduction than taxation. Participants (n = 1,096) received one version of a survey with the same energy-behavior–related questions and identical incurred costs under one of the following framings: energy tax (where carbon was not mentioned), carbon tax, and PCA. Results suggest that policies that draw people's attention to carbon (PCA and carbon taxation) could have greater impact on their stated willingness to reduce energy consumption, and on the reduction amounts prompted, than would a non-overt price signal (energy tax). There is mixed evidence, however, as to whether PCA or carbon taxation would produce the largest energy demand reductions. Some indication was found for a spillover toward wider carbon conservation under the PCA framing. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management.

Behavioural influences of personal carbon trading (PCT) beyond those anticipated by pure price effects have been a theoretically attractive, yet empirically elusive, feature of such schemes. Computer-based simulation is used to examine the effects of participants' decisions on their personal carbon allocations within a PCT context. Evidence is presented about participants' tendencies to make more energy-conserving decisions as a consequence of attending to a restrictive and diminishing carbon allowance—independent of other financial and carbon cost information provided—suggesting that a form of ‘carbon budgeting’ is occurring. Further measurements indicate that the extent of carbon reduction achieved within the simulated PCT framework varies according to pro-environmental attitudes. Evidence is also presented that the size of participants' footprints correlates inversely with support for PCT; and that proenvironmental attitudes correlate positively with support for PCT. The advantages and drawbacks of using simulations for examining behavioural responses to PCT are discussed.

Factors influencing undergraduates’ selection of Pharmacy as a course of study, career, study and professional perspectives were evaluated by survey over the years 2004 – 2006 at Otago University, New Zealand. Altruistic intent emerged as a powerful motivator for choosing pharmacy and entrepreneurial career intentions were prominent. A sizeable though declining number of students selected pharmacy secondarily to medicine or dentistry. Gender differences were found between intended areas of practice.

Students’ reasons for choosing pharmacy as a course of study and career, together with professional and educational perspectives, were evaluated by survey and compared longitudinally between the start and end of a New Zealand BPharm degree. In contrast with a number of studies in medical education, findings indicate persistence of patient-oriented, altruistic and empathetic attitude across years of study. Entrepreneurial intentions remain high, especially among male students. It is suggested that integration of science and communication aspects during later years of study, together with recognition of pharmacy’s scope of career pathways may help to engender commitment and optimism towards a pharmacy career.

Over the past two decades, scholars and practitioners across the social sciences, policy and beyond have\ud proposed, trialled and developed a wide range of theoretical and practical approaches designed to bring\ud about changes in behaviors and lifestyles that contribute to climate change. With the exception of the\ud establishment of a small number of iconic behaviors such as recycling, it has, however, proved extremely\ud difficult to bring about meaningful transformations in personal greenhouse gas emissions at the individual\ud or societal level, with multiple reviews now pointing to the limited efficacy of current approaches. We argue\ud that the majority of approaches designed to achieve mitigation have been constrained by the need to operate\ud within prevailing social scientific, economic and political orthodoxies which have precluded the possibility\ud of non-marginal change. In this paper, we ask what a truly radical approach to reducing personal emissions\ud would look like from social science perspectives which challenge the unstated assumptions severely limiting\ud action to date, and which explore new alternatives for change. We emphasize the difficulties likely to impede\ud the instituting of genuinely radical societal change with respect to climate change mitigation, while proposing\ud ways that the ground could be prepared for such a transformation to occur.

The paper describes the implementation of a Peer Assisted Learning (PAL) programme on the Management Foundation Course in the School of Service Industries at Bournemouth University. PAL is a specialised form of mentoring whereby trained second year students - Student Leaders - run study support for first year students. The emphasis is on the acquisition by first years of a deeper understanding of course subject matter and the development of critical thinking skills. Student Leaders do not teach and have no specific knowledge to impart, but instead facilitate group discussion among first years through the use of process-oriented techniques. PAL is contextualised to Service Industries by its emphasis on assistance with difficult course components. The evidence base of PAL is discussed as are the research aims of the PAL Project.

Public perceptions of climate change are known to differ between nations and to have fluctuated over time. Numerous plausible characterizations of these variations, and explanations for them, are to be found in the literature. However, a clear picture has not yet emerged as to the principal trends and patterns that have occurred over the past quarter-century or the factors behind these changes. This systematic review considers previous empirical research that has addressed the temporal aspects to public perceptions. We address findings that have been obtained since the 1980s and using a range of methodologies. In this review, we consider early, seminal work examining public perceptions; survey studies carried out over long timescales and at an international scale, detailed statistical analyses of the drivers of changing perceptions; and qualitative research featuring a longitudinal component. Studies point to growing skepticism in the latter 2000s in some developed countries, underpinned by economic and sociopolitical factors. Even so, in many parts of the world, there has been growing concern about climate change in recent years. We conclude that the imbalance in the literature toward polling data, and toward studies of public perceptions in Western nations (particularly the United States), leaves much unknown about the progression of public understanding of climate change worldwide. More research is required that uses inferential statistical procedures to understand the reasons behind trends in public perceptions. The application of qualitative longitudinal methodologies also offers the potential for better appreciation of the cultural contexts in which climate change perceptions are evolving. WIREs Clim Change 2015, 6:35-61. doi: 10.1002/wcc.321 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website. Conflict of interest: The authors have declared no conflicts of interest for this article.

The holding of doubts about climate change is often referred to as ‘scepticism’. However, there has been a lack of clarity in previous work as to what exactly this scepticism comprises. We integrate data obtained from discussion groups and a nationally representative survey, to interrogate and refine the concept of climate change scepticism with respect to the views of members of the public. We argue that two main types should be distinguished: epistemic scepticism, relating to doubts about the status of climate change as a scientific and physical phenomenon; and response scepticism, relating to doubts about the efficacy of action taken to address climate change. Whilst each type is independently associated by people themselves with climate change scepticism, we find that the latter is more strongly associated with a lack of concern about climate change. As such, additional effort should be directed towards addressing and engaging with people's doubts concerning attempts to address climate change.