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Kristina Blennow

Visiting research fellow

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To Mitigate or Adapt? : Explaining Why Citizens Responding to Climate Change Favour the Former

Author

  • Kristina Blennow
  • Johannes Persson

Summary, in English

Why do citizens’ decisions made because they favour the mitigation of climate change outnumber those made because they favour adaptation to its impacts? Using data collected in a survey of 338 citizens of Malmö, Sweden, we tested two hypotheses. H1: the motivation for personal decisions because they favour adaptation to the impacts of climate change correlates with the decision-making agent´s knowledge of specific local impacts of climate change, and H2: the motivation for personal decisions because they favour mitigation of climate change correlates with the risk perception of the decision-making agent. While decisions made because they favour mitigation correlated with negative net values of expected impacts of climate change (risk perception), decisions made because they favour adaptation correlated with its absolute value unless tipping point behaviour occurred. Tipping point behaviour occurs here when the decision-making agent abstains from decisions in response to climate change in spite of a strongly negative or positive net value of expected impacts. Hence, the decision-making agents´ lack of knowledge of specific climate change impacts inhibited decisions promoting adaptation. Moreover, positive experiences of climate change inhibited mitigation decisions. Discussing the results, we emphasised the importance of understanding the drivers of adaptation and mitigation decisions. In particular, we stress that attention needs to be paid to the balance between decisions solving problems ‘here and now’ and those focusing on the ‘there and then’.

Department/s

  • VBE
  • Theoretical Philosophy

Publishing year

2021-03-01

Language

English

Publication/Series

Land

Volume

10

Issue

3

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

MDPI AG

Topic

  • Agricultural Science, Forestry and Fisheries
  • Philosophy, Ethics and Religion

Keywords

  • climate change adaptation
  • climate change mitigation
  • tipping point behaviour
  • risk perception
  • net value of expected impacts
  • decision maker´s tipping point behaviour; systemic tipping point behaviou
  • systemic tipping point behaviour
  • climate change adaptation
  • climate change mitigation
  • tipping point behaviour
  • risk perception
  • net value of expected impacts
  • decision maker’s tipping point behaviour
  • systemic tipping point behaviour

Status

Published

Research group

  • VBE

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2073-445X