Making the difficult easy: Reducing carbon footprint while preserving quality of life through effective behavior change

The challenge of halting climate change is often described as an environmental problem, although accumulating evidence states that climate change is largely driven by human behavior. Even though psychological research is highly useful for understanding human behaviors and what motivates them, this knowledge has not yet been widely applied in policies aiming to mitigate global warming. Policy implementations should anticipate impacts on both individual welfare and reductions in greenhouse gases. In this study, we aimed to explore which type and level of behavior change would have the optimal relationship with reductions in CO 2 e emissions and impact on quality of life (QOL). A survey was conducted among 500 participants living in the Stockholm Region, assessing how different behavior changes would affect their QOL. The carbon footprint was calculated through per capita estimates provided by Statistics Sweden. The most effective behavior changes according to this study were reductions in shopping , followed by work travel within Stockholm , private travel abroad and meat consumption . This indicates that these categories of behaviors are potential leverage points, where policy makers could implement meaningful and effective interventions while at the same time preserving individuals' QOL. • Consumer behavior is an important field of research when it comes to understanding how to limit global warming. • Changing consumer behavior is expected to be more viable if the negative impact on quality of life is smaller. • Shopping, travel habits and meat consumption were promising targets for behavior change.