Society, Behavior, and Climate Change Mitigation

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted increasing greenhouse gas concentrations and discernible human influence on global change. Limiting the changing global climate will require policies, programmes, and measures to deploy new mitigation technologies and entrepreneurial opportunities. The social, behavioural, and cultural changes, however, are poorly understood at present. Traditional conceptual frameworks for mitigation assessment do not sufficiently take into account social and psychological factors such as individual motivation and personality (e.g., convenience, fun culture, social prestige), communication, and decision patterns within administrations and companies, or cultural traditions and life styles of societal groups. Therefore, this book focuses on these aspects and related conceptual frameworks for mitigation assessment. Its aim is to encourage and develop more effective mitigation policies worldwide, to assist marketing aspects of energy service companies, technology producers, and utilities in gaining better understanding of their customers' decisions, and to provide material for relevant courses at universities and other research institutions.