Motivating low-carbon behaviours - insights from the Scottish Government

Section 2: Attitude and Behaviour Tracking

Since 2010 quantitative data has been collected on the Scottish public's attitudes to climate change, as well as some of their relevant behaviours ^[5] . This tracking research was conducted alongside the Scottish Government's Greener Marketing campaigns, providing an overview of the populations attitudes over time. More information on current greener campaigns can be found at www.greenerscotland.org.

The research consisted of around 1000 interviews for each wave of data collection, during which respondents were asked to what extent they agreed or disagreed with a broad range of statements.

Research covered levels of concern, personal responsibility, and the perceived benefits of action.

Tracking has seen slow positive progress, with stalling in some areas.

Attitudes

Behaviours

The majority of people report making a contribution of some kind, although only a small percentage do 'a lot', and there has been no significant increase in this fraction since 2010. These responses will likely depend on many factors, however, including the perceived effort the respondents went to, normalisation over time of certain behaviours and levels of awareness of the range of actions that could be taken.