Simple changes in our individual behaviour could significantly reduce carbon emissions with “little or no reduction in household well-being,” according to a new study from researchers in the US.

Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the report — “Household actions can provide a behavioural wedge to rapidly reduce US carbon emissions” (pdf) — finds that non-regulatory changes in habit encouraged through policy and “strong social marketing” could, by the 10th year, reduce US carbon emissions by 7.4 per cent. That amounts to 123 million metric tonnes of carbon per year, which is slightly more than all the emissions produced annually by France.

So what kind of habit changes are we talking about? The study looks at 17 different actions in five categories: weatherisation and heating/cooling upgrades, more efficient vehicles and equipment (low-flow showerheads, for example), better equipment maintenance (including routine auto care), equipment adjustments (such as water-heater temperature) and daily use behaviours (such as line drying laundry).

“The most prominent policy approaches to the climate commons dilemma — national and international cap-and-trade regimes — face issues of implementation feasibility that could delay achievement of carbon emissions reduction objectives for years,” the researchers write. “This potential ‘behavioural wedge’ can reduce emissions much more quickly than other kinds of changes and deserves explicit consideration as part of climate policy. It can potentially help avoid ‘overshoot’ of greenhouse gas concentration targets; provide a demonstration effect; reduce emissions at low cost; and buy time to develop new technologies, policies and institutions to reach longer-term greenhouse gas emissions targets and to develop adaptation strategies.”

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