
HOPE
Household Preferences for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in four European high-income countries
In the HOPE project we investigated what households in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden are willing to do to reduce their carbon footprint. Keeping in mind the international goal to keep global warming at 1,5°C, we even challenged households to half their carbon footprint. With a precise tool we first calculated households’ carbon footprints and then provided them up to 60 options to reduce it. Afterwards we interviewed households to identify the motivators and barriers to reduce emissions, including health aspects of more sustainable lifestyles. The household survey was accompanied by a policy analysis, evaluating current climate policies and their affect on households.
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With current policy support, households in those four European countries would at the maximum reduce their carbon footprint by 25%. Health seems to be a relevant motivator for households to consider sustainable lifestyle options. However, many barriers still prevent households from substantial carbon footprint reductions. Climate policy-making has to be more focused on promoting lifestyle and consumption-changes, also implementing regulative policy instruments like carbon taxes.
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Households were most willing to reduce emissionsin the food and recycling sector. Households even wished for stronger regulations for industry to make it easier for them to buy food with less or greener packaging.
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Households found it most difficult to reduce emissionsin the mobility sector (esp. car and plane use). Alongside policies supporting sustainable mobility choices, a whole new public discourse about mobility is needed to substantially reduce emissions in this sector.

About
In the HOPE project we investigated what households in France, Germany, Norway and Sweden are willing to do to reduce their carbon footprint. Keeping in mind the international goal to keep global warming at 1,5°C, we even challenged households to half their carbon footprint. With a precise tool we first calculated households’ carbon footprints and then provided them up to 60 options to reduce it. Afterwards we interviewed households to identify the motivators and barriers to reduce emissions, including health aspects of more sustainable lifestyles. The household survey was accompanied by a policy analysis, evaluating current climate policies and their affect on households.
We believe that our results can encourage policy makers to implement a policy-mix consisting of incentives plus regulations in sectors where they are accepted (e.g. food and recycling). In sectors like mobility, first of all infrastructural investments are needed to make healthy and sustainable transport modes easy and affordable. However, more ambitous climate policies in the mobility sector are necessary. It is particularly crucial to involve civil society in policy decision making by fostering a public discourse about sustainable lifestyles within our planetary boundaries.
Project leader
My name is Dr. med. Alina Herrmann and I was the HOPE project coordinator, working closely together with the project leader Prof. Rainer Sauerborn, MD PhD. As a medical doctor I am interested in how to tackle health issues that modern societies suffer from: chronic diseases like diabetes, cardiocascular and respiratory disease. Most of these diseases are due to our sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy diets, which are often unsustainable as well. Thus, for me it is essential to find out how we can make our societies more sustainable and more healthy at the same time.
Project consortium
Heidelberg Institute of Global Health
Centre International de Recherche sur l'Environnement et le Développement
Climate Policy Consulting and Research
Umeå University
Institute for Global Health, University Hospital Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany was in charge of the Scientific coordination, study design and quantitative analysis. TEC-Conseil, Marseille, France, managed the project and built the tool. CIRED, Centre International de Recherche sur l’Environnement et le Développement, France, worked on the economic evaluation. The Western Norway Research Institute, Sogndal, Norway, was in charge of the involvement of stakeholders and of policy analysis. From Sweden, the Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Umeå University, worked on the qualitative study design and the quantitative analysis. Each country was assisted by a policy advisory board, consisting of local policy-makers and experts from NGOs and local, regional and/or national government
Documents
- Report
HOPE Briefing Sheet 5 – How can policies enable households to contribute to the 1.5°C goal?
- Report
HOPE Briefing Sheet 4 – What role do health co-benefits play in households’ decision-making?
- Report
HOPE Briefing Sheet 3 – What are the reasons behind households’ preferences for reducing greenhouse gas emissions?
- Report
HOPE project website
News & Events
Parent programme
Call 2013
Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects
This JPI Climate Joint Call for Transnational Collaborative Research Projects provided support for top-quality research projects on topics that are of high societal relevance in Europe and globally, recognising that such challenges require joint efforts through multinational approaches. JPI Climate is seeking proposals from consortia consisting of partners from the participating European countries as well as others. Consortia brought together different scientific disciplines to address the issues within the scope of the described call topics. The projects displayed clear links to decision-makers and users of climate knowledge as well as potential change agents in society.
12
countries
45
partners
9
projects

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