Behavior, Energy, and Climate Change: Policy Directions, Program Innovations, and Research Paths

Karen Ehrhardt-Martinez

November 2008

Executive Summary

The United States can reap a wealth of cost-effective energy savings and reduce our contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions by providing the tools, technologies, education, information, and motivation needed to help all types of Americans change their energy consumption patterns and behaviors. Importantly, however, Americans are more likely to be successful in achieving these savings and in achieving them sooner if they are empowered by effective programs and policies that can help them to:

1. see more clearly the size of our current energy service demands, how those demands are currently met, and the implications for ourselves, our neighbors, and our children,
2. understand the range of energy options and choices from household to nation state,
3. imagine what a different energy future might look like,
4. prioritize social and governmental goals based on a long-term energy vision, and
5. make smart energy choices for their own household, business, or industry.

Currently scholars throughout the scientific community acknowledge that our nation’s ability to achieve energy security and reduce our impact on the global climate will require that we tap into multiple sources of potential energy savings. Moreover, inefficient patterns of human behavior represent a large, untapped reserve that could (according to several estimates) potentially reduce current levels of energy consumption by 20-25%, and do so in ways that save money (Gardner and Stern 2008, Laitner et al. 2009). And the time is right for mobilizing the behavioral resource: energy use is at an all time high and energy service demands are even higher; people are increasingly concerned about climate change and high energy prices; new information and communications technologies are available for providing individuals, households, and businesses with a wide variety of previously unavailable information and feedback about their energy use patterns (and those of others); and the nation has experienced a notable shift in worldviews with an unprecedented proportion recognizing the need to moderate the human impact on the environment. In short, there is a real need to change our current patterns of energy use, and the vast majority of people agree that it is the right thing to do.

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84pp., 2008, $40.00, E087