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Stuck Inside of Mobile? Local Climate Initiatives Practicing Eco-feedback

Fri, August 22, 8:30 to 10:30am, Intercontinental Hotel, Miró

Abstract

The search for effective response to climate change is dominated by competing discourses, notably a divide between individualistic and systemic intervention approaches. The former focus on informed choice, individual responsibility and behaviour change, the latter define social practices and wider socio-technical change as crucial levers. While targeting individuals tends to overlook powerful forces beyond individual control as well as social dilemmas, there is consensus that transition to a low-carbon future is not achievable without significant changes to human actions and life styles. More recently, community action and engagement of energy consumers as citizens have been proposed as elements bridging different requirements.
This contribution investigates the effects of community level climate initiatives which combine (e )participation of citizen panels, long-term individual and collective CO2 monitoring, and collaboration with local governments on achieving local climate targets. The rationale behind this design is to provide for a collective process with specific features to turn individual commitments and local circumstances into effective climate protection: e.g. carbon footprint monitoring for enhancing the understanding of behaviour impacts; various support to individual empowerment, social learning, collective capacity building, and change to low-carbon practices.
The “e2democracy” research project (Austrian Science Fund (FWF): I 169-G16), studied seven cases with similar set-up in Austria, Germany and Spain. Conclusions are: Eco-feedback embedded in a community initiative allowed the majority of participants’ improving their climate awareness and individual CO2 balances, however, not necessarily progressing to target achievement at aggregate local level. Widening and deepening participation and achieving impact on social practices and policies remain major challenges, underlining the limits to rational choice type advice “information saves energy”.

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