Abstract: Understanding factors that influence Individuals Willingness to Act to Reduce

Understanding factors that influence Individuals Willingness to Act to Reduce Climate
Change Mitigating the impacts of climate change by reducing global greenhouse gas
emissions will require individuals to change their personal consumption choices and
political decisions. Individual’s personal and political behavior and their consumption
choices are primary causes of greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, individual behavior
and demand are primary drivers of government decisions to implement climate change
reduction policies and business decisions to offer low‐carbon products and services. In this
study we investigate factors that influence individuals’ willingness to undertake climate
change reduction behaviors. Our results suggest that positive attitudes towards climate
change reduction behaviors are the strongest predictor of individuals’ willingness to act to
reduce climate change. We also found that positive attitudes are influenced by belief that
climate change is occurring, knowledge of the causes of climate change and perceived
likelihood that climate change will have personally relevant consequences. The proposed
model explains over 75% of variation in willingness to act to reduce climate change in our
sample. These findings have important implications for policymakers, educators, and others
who are working to reduce climate change impacts. For example, campaigns aimed at
motivating individuals to increase their adoption of climate change reduction behaviors
should focus on (1) proving that climate change is occurring; (2) clarifying the causes of
climate change; and (3) portraying the impacts of climate change as both personally
relevant and likely to occur.