In search of a policy mix for climate-friendly homes

In their latest study, the authors scanned 122 relevant research papers using machine learning methods and covering 25 countries around the world. They looked for a track record of effective incentives to influence everyday behaviour for sensible use of electricity, heating, and ventilation in private homes. The leading question was how governments can incentivise more sustainable individual behaviour based on available devices in residential housing. The reasoning behind is that challenges ahead of the global climate policy require not only declining energy demand in buildings, but also nudging responsible energy use.

The study analyses the effectiveness of various tools tested globally, such as monetary incentives, measures that inform the population, feedback instruments, playful motivational actions. "According to our impact analysis, comprehensive application of such instruments could avoid 350 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year worldwide in the short term", says Tarun Khanna, Research Associate at the Hertie School Centre for Sustainability and lead author of the paper. The findings on policy mix are the more informative as they are based on a solid number of empirical observations.

The paper entitled A multi-country meta-analysis on the role of behavioural change in reducing energy consumption and CO2 emissions in residential buildings was published in Nature Energy. It summarizes the collective effort of thirteen researchers, Prof. Lion Hirth and Tarun Khanna among them. The study was initiated by the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC).

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