Individual behaviour following climate policies

Abstract

The European Green Deal consists of multiple local, national, and multilateral action plans, deals and policies. This deal poses a challenge for policymakers to enact policies targeted at individuals without harmful externalities. Climate policy has the power to influence individual behaviour and this paper researches four sorts of climate policy. This paper follows the “carrot-whip-sermon-nudge” framework for policies by Tummers (2019) and assesses the effectiveness of each strain. Applying an integrative literature review under qualitative methodology, normative judgments are drawn to produce implications for policymakers. The carrot policy yields a short-term effect but crowds out motivation. Whip policy reaches a large group of individuals but targets the budget and motivation of individuals. Sermon policy could have the benefit of informing people but has a larger effect on the already-informed individual. Nudging policy can be effective and can yield large effects if it is implemented on large groups of individuals in important climate-dependent decisions. Climate policy succeeds if it targets even those who are not aware of climate change and whip and nudging policy is the most suitable combination.

Keywords: Individual behaviour, climate policy, carrot, whip, sermon, nudging.