Wednesday 13 May 2015

Regression Analysis of Findings in the Horizon Research Ltd Survey New Zealanders’ Climate Change Actions and Attitudes Development

By Scott White, Motu Intern

In mid-2014, researchers from Motu Economic and Public Policy Research and Victoria University of Wellington collaborated with Horizon Research Ltd with support from the Sustainable Business Council to survey New Zealanders about their climate change beliefs and household actions that reduce emissions.  Results are reported in Horizon Research Ltd (2014) and discussed in Leining and White (2015). This manuscript details the regression analysis of the survey data which is referenced by Leining and White.
While bearing in mind that these results represent correlations between climate change beliefs and actions, and may not represent causal relationships, we find that:

1. People who do not believe their actions will make a difference to reduce climate change are less likely to:

  • take low-commitment household actions  that reduce GHG emissions.
  • generate renewable energy at home. 
  • change their transport behaviour (e.g. car or airplane travel) in ways that reduce GHG emissions. 
  • change their diet behaviour in ways that reduce GHG emissions.


2. People who do not believe that people like them are likely to be affected by climate change are less likely to:

  • make low-commitment household actions that reduce GHG emissions. 
  • generate renewable energy at home. 
  • change their transport behaviour in ways that reduce GHG emissions. 
  • change their diet behaviour in ways that reduce GHG emissions.


3. There is some evidence that perceived effectiveness of personal actions to reduce climate change and perceived likelihood of climate change impacts on people like oneself act as substitute motivators rather than complementary motivators in people’s decision to take some types of household mitigation actions.  In some cases, if people are strongly motivated to act by one of these beliefs, then the other appears to have less influence.

Check out the rest of Scott White's paper here.

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