With net-zero a hard sell, companies need to flip the climate narrative, UK committee hears

Heat pumps are not the only low-carbon solution that the British public seem sluggish to embrace. Increasing their use of public transport, ditching combustion engine cars in favour of electric vehicles, switching to a green electricity tariff: all are inching up, but not fast enough.

So, can smarter public communication campaigns accelerate pro-climate behaviour changes? And, if so, what kind of messages and delivery mechanisms have the best chance of cutting through?

The consensus among behaviour-change experts convened by the committee last week was that today’s political and media context makes landing climate-oriented messages ever more difficult.

Just how difficult has been evident this week, as tabloid newspapers seized on a new report from the right-leaning Institute of Economic Affairs, which estimated that the cost of balancing the country’s carbon emissions by 2050 could be triple the 3 trillion pounds originally forecast.

A headline in The Daily Express described the UK government’s “net-zero madness” as “truly terrifying”.

A worker checks a heat pump system inside a heat pump network site in the village of Swaffham Prior, Cambridgeshire, Britain. REUTERS/Hannah McKay Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

A Department for Energy Security & Net Zero official, meanwhile, told trade magazine Renews that it rejected the analysis, “which assumes there are no costs associated with staying on the fossil fuel rollercoaster.” The official cited a report from system operator Neso, showing “we could save 36 billion pounds annually if we hit our 2050 goals compared with a scenario in which we slow down”.

Lorraine Whitmarsh, director of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation at the University of Bath, told the Environmental Audit Committee that the term “net zero” is both politically contentious and overly technical. “The evidence is clear that it (net zero) is not a phrase that resonates widely amongst the public … and in fact it is starting to be to polarising as well,” she stated.

What is being asked of the public is also getting harder. As Park explained, much of the carbon savings that governments or businesses could do with little or no public involvement – such as phasing out coal from electricity production – has already been achieved.

“We’re now moving on to the kind of stuff that does actually affect people’s lives more directly in households, so of course it’s going to become a little bit more politically contentious,” he concluded.

Yet, the same research also found that nearly three-quarters (74%) of those surveyed believed that climate policies will leave them financially worse off.

Onshore wind turbines at Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm in Dungeness, Britain. Householder uptake of green electricity tariffs is rising slowly in Britain. REUTERS/Chris J. Ratcliffe Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

The committee was told that it’s important to flip the narrative that eco-behaviours represent some kind of sacrifice. Instead, lead on the personal benefits of planet-friendly actions, such as health aspects of cycling to work, and savings on heating bills from improvements to insulation.

When Leeds City Council launched a campaign to promote green transport options, its messaging made much of the lower air pollution and greater child safety that derive from fewer cars on the road, rather than emission reduction.

Polly Cook, chief officer of climate, energy and green spaces for the council, said. “If you go out with messages like fuel poverty and health, then it’s quite difficult for people to say they actually don’t like those messages.”

All the experts agreed that messaging which promotes personal rewards should be balanced with those focusing on the planetary benefits. This helps avoid a scenario where people solely act if it is in their own self-interest.

Several common communications missteps were also flagged during the committee hearing. First was the temptation to respond to cases of misinformation head on, which merely serves to give even more airtime to the error in question. Instead, a clean break should be sought in the public’s mind by presenting the correct information on its own terms and in its own context.

Whitmarsh of the Centre for Climate Change and Social Transformation added that the public is far more likely to act when prompted to do so by individuals or organisations who they know or trust. And the more local the messenger, the better.

This opens a door for businesses such as supermarkets and banks that are embedded in their local communities, argued Park of the Behavioural Insights Team. Such venues offer a “touchpoint” where the public can “interact with the communications campaign, the policy, the public service, the new incentive, the nudge, whatever it might be,” he added.

A train passes through wintry countryside in Perthshire, Scotland. The success of behaviour-change messages such as encouraging people to use public transport relies on removing barriers to uptake. REUTERS/Russell Cheyne Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab

Timing can also prove influential. Changes to behaviour are more likely to occur alongside breaks in individuals’ routines, when they are affected by “exogenous shocks” like an unexpected flood, or “spike moments” such as a house move or new job.

If people feel unjustly penalised or otherwise disadvantaged, they are unlikely to buy in, said Whitmarsh. On the flipside, when citizens have opportunities to become actively involved in a policy’s design, uptake tends to be much higher.

However, the time and resources required to create this sense of ownership means such approach is “not always practical”, Leeds Council’s Polly Cook conceded.

Most significantly, the success of behaviour-change messages relies on removing barriers to their uptake. Encouraging people to use public transport when they live in the countryside and have no access to buses or trains, for example, is set up to fail. Similarly, campaigns encouraging homeowners to fit heat pumps are hamstrung at the high upfront costs (despite the aid of subsidies) and a lack of trained installers.

The abiding lesson is that most of us are products of our social, cultural and practical environments, however much we may think we are free agents.

“Basically, people will tend to go with the default; it’s the easy option,” concluded Whitmarsh. “And, at the moment, the current systems are tending towards the default being the higher-carbon option for most.”