Luis Mundaca
Professor
Behavioural insights for sustainable energy use
Author
Summary, in English
Behavioural insights are increasingly shaping the design, implementation and evaluation of energy policies. This Special Issue aims to broaden and strengthen the evidence base, and policy value of behavioural insights in the context of sustainable energy use. It showcases a plethora of behavioural issues that can help to improve our understanding of the decision-making ‘black box’ of energy users and the contexts in which behaviours take place. Our editorial focuses on five cross-cutting themes, namely: interdisciplinarity, policy experimentation, non-economic factors, the diffusion of low-carbon innovations, and digitalisation. Findings across these themes reveal various challenges (e.g. timescales of energy behaviours, scaling of policy experiments, heterogeneous treatment effects) and four overarching areas are identified when policy implications are examined horizontally: ambition, integration, cooperation and ethics. We conclude that the application of behavioural insights to sustainable energy use provides a rich body of evidence and approaches to support our understanding of complex policy issues. It is an interdisciplinary and resource-intensive process that can effectively assist policymaking by encouraging behaviour change via more integrated, (cost-) effective interventions. Knowledge exchange between social scientists and policymakers is crucial for behavioural insights to realise their full potential. Ethical considerations call for good research practices and improved governance.
Department/s
- The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
Publishing year
2022
Language
English
Publication/Series
Energy Policy
Volume
171
Document type
Journal article (comment)
Publisher
Elsevier
Topic
- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
- Energy Systems
Keywords
- Behaviour change
- Behavioural insights
- Energy behaviours
- Heterogeneity
- Interdisciplinarity
- Nudge
- Policy experimentation
Status
Published
Project
- Hard-to-Reach Energy Users
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0301-4215