Consumer Power | Institute for Public Policy Research
The London-based IPPR has published a new guide for climate communications, called "Consumer Power." Two of the ten lessons:
1. Don’t focus on climate change
A lack of awareness of climate change is not the problem. Most people are aware, but that awareness is not motivating enough. For many, climate change is just boring. Other motivations need to be drawn on because saving the planet or helping the environment, while not seen as a bad thing, is a secondary reason for taking action at best. Recognition of that should be the starting point of all communications efforts to encourage mainstream consumers to adopt lower-carbon behaviours.2. Focus on saving money now
Emphasising the money-saving potential of adopting lower-carbon behaviours will be much more effective than urging people to take action on the basis that it will prevent climate change – particularly in the present economic climate. The economic downturn is influencing everything and people’s focus is on ways of saving money – or on simply not wasting it. So a key message should be: Not wasting energy = not wasting money.
Tom Crompton of Identity Campaigning responds:
There’s much in this report that is good. ... The research focuses on the all-important ‘Now people’ - the ‘uberconsumers’ who tend to be indifferent to environmental concerns - especially when these are framed as environmental concerns. ...
There are two possible responses:
(1) Take public resistance to moving beyond the “pursuit of status, fashion, success, and the esteem and recognition of others” as something that will never change, and work to ’sell’ pro-environmental behaviours on the basis of these values (using the same techniques that marketers use to sell anything else). ...
Alternatively;
(2) Work to bring other values and life-goals (what social psychologists call self-transcendent and intrinsic values) to the fore.
