In our critical reflexion on typical causes for delaying, downgrading, or rejecting climate change action, we explore “No sticks, just carrots”, which falls under the category of disruption fear.
“Don’t bribe children with sweets” is a standard message for any parent seeking advice on how to motivate their offspring to behave a certain way. “Children need clear rules” is another one of those. Even though these are common and accepted approaches with respect to upbringing, they are frowned upon if discussed with respect to society. Over the past authorities have installed various incentives to motivate a societal transformation from the current fossil-based lifestyle to a more sustainable one. For instance, cities financially support and promote the use of public transport, yet, so far, without real success as emissions are still rising in the transport sector.
For many people, it’s not because the alternatives aren’t attractive enough, but that they can’t imagine what it’s like to behave differently because they’ve never tried it. It is said that it takes about two months of sticking to an alternative routine for it to become the “normal” one. Therefore, incentives for a changing lifestyle need to be applied for a longer time period, which is difficult to achieve without rules.
Yet, authorities hardly establish rules that would accelerate the transformation to a sustainable lifestyle as they fear disruptive change since they can’t estimate the consequences. Still, life consists of disruptions and our ability to adapt. Each occurring extreme weather event which causes damage or even loss of life, each act of violence or personal tragedy disrupts the known status quo and forces us to change. A change we are capable of!
To overcome the disruption fear and to enable the implementation of needed guidelines with respect to an accelerated transformation, KNOWING will model the reaction of different behaviour types towards mitigation and adaptation measures. By understanding and foreseeing possible reactions towards needed guidelines and rules, policy makers can for instance better plan the process needed to ensure the successful implementation.
