How Green is Household Behaviour?
Sustainable Choices in a Time of Interlocking Crises
Household choices – such as what to eat, how to get to work and how to heat our homes – have significant implications for the environment. With the urgency of environmental action and the need to shift to more sustainable consumption patterns, making more sustainable choices holds great potential to reduce environmental impacts. Yet in the context of interlocking crises, governments face challenges in supporting households with policies that realise this potential.
How Green is Household Behaviour? presents an overview of results from the 2022 OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change. The survey investigates household attitudes and behaviour with respect to energy, transport, waste and food systems. It was carried out across more than 17 000 households in 9 countries, including Belgium, Canada, Israel, France, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The data collected also include information on self-reported motivations and barriers to change, providing a unique source of empirical evidence to inform policy efforts to shift to more sustainable consumption patterns.
Also available in: French
Household behaviour and residential energy use
Households worldwide account for nearly a quarter of all energy use globally, with OECD household energy use responsible for 14% of all OECD carbon dioxide emissions in 2019. This chapter analyses responses from the third round of the OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC) on households’ residential energy use in nine OECD countries. It reviews the main energy sources used by households; their uptake of renewable and low-emissions options; and the barriers to further uptake. It also explores the extent to which households act to conserve energy, and their views on the policies that would encourage them to reduce their own energy use. Finally, it presents respondents’ support for energy-related policies, including energy efficiency standards; subsidies for housing renovation, purchasing energy-efficient appliances or investing in renewable energy equipment; and energy taxes.
Also available in: French
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