Public attitudes to climate change and travel behaviour

A DfT funded review: Evidence based review of public attitudes to climate change and travel behaviour has recently been published.

The objectives of the review were to improve the evidence base for policy decisions as regards:

1. How climate change knowledge and awareness relates to transport decision-making, attitudes and behaviours amongst the public;
2. The nature and impact of interventions aimed at altering attitudes and behaviours in relation to climate change issues;
3. The identification of research methods (including measures and data sources) pertinent to these issues;
4. The identification of evidence gaps worthy of further research.

The findings, very briefly, are as follows:

1. There is only a weak link between knowledge and awareness of climate change on the one hand and travel behaviour at the individual level on the other. Raising public awareness of this link is necessary, particularly to galvanise support for carbon abatement policy, but it is not sufficient to change behaviour on its own. In order to effect change, many other factors need to be addressed - at the objective and subjective and at the individual and collective levels. These factors will be different for different travel behaviours and for different people.
2. Transport policies can set out to change attitudes directly as a route to behaviour change, or they can be indirect in that they aim to change behaviour first without necessarily changing attitudes. This review concludes that a combination of each of these types of measures is desirable. In addition, any travel behaviour change strategy will be more effective if it targets change at the community level. Community Based Social Marketing offers a strategic framework to transform markets and behaviours.
3. There is a need to engage the public in issues of transport and climate change using deliberative methodologies to deviate from traditional 'top down' methods of information provision. New forms of research and communication need to be two-way, explore formats for learning on all sides of the issue, have an iterative and deliberative component and not necessarily strive to reach consensus.
4. Nine areas for further research were identified.