Psychology and Sustainable Development: Beyond Behaviour Change

Par David UZZELL, Professor of Environmental Psychology at the University of Surrey.

Une session du séminaire Développement durable et économie de l’environnement

“The public is concerned about climate change. However, there is clearly a reluctance amongst the majority of the population to make significant changes to their lifestyles and everyday practices – what we as psychologists call the value-action gap. How do we explain this? This talk will examine the way in which both the public and governments seek to dislocate the causes of climate change – whether it is individual attitudes or government policies – from the local, to the national and to the global, and from the present to the future. And this lecture also intends to question one of the principal strategies employed by the government to address our unsustainable ways of life – behaviour change – a strategy which very much draws on the work of psychologists.

Behaviour change is clearly important – we all have a responsibility as individuals to change our lifestyles, but what I question is whether it can deliver the kind of changes needed at the scale required. Changing the conditions which encourage and drive our behaviours may be more effective. We need to tackle the societal structures and processes that promote and reinforce identity desires, values, images and inequalities if we are serious about changing unsustainable consumer practices. The last part of the talk will discuss two case studies which illustrate the challenges facing us if we are to meet the 2020 and 2050 carbon emission targets, but also how psychology can make a positive and important contribution to this task.”