Using Behavioural Insights to harness the power of communities in tackling the climate emergency

The climate emergency is one of the many ‘long crises’ we are currently experiencing, that will require collaboration from all sectors to tackle. This is especially true for local government. Whilst c.75% of councils have made decarbonisation commitments that go over and above the UK’s 2050 target, delivery is difficult, and several local authorities we have spoken to recognise significant challenges to achieving their targets.

Traditional models of local public services will not work for addressing the climate emergency. This is not a service that can be provided to, or for residents, nor do local authorities have the funds or mandate to deliver across their place systems. It is therefore necessary for officers and elected members to work in different ways to achieve change.

This is where a shift towards the ‘Community Paradigm’^[1] , harnessing the latent power of communities to drive change in their public services and local places, will be incredibly powerful. In fact, the Climate Change Committee revealed that 62% of emissions reductions in the UK will be dependent on behaviour change.^[2]

We outline the opportunity for local authorities to apply behavioural insights in order to harness community engagement in tackling the climate emergency.