Environmental citizens: climate pledger attitudes and micro-generation installation
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In: Local Environment, Vol. 17, No. 1, 01.2012, p. 75-91.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Environmental citizens
T2 - climate pledger attitudes and micro-generation installation
AU - Upham, Paul
PY - 2012/1
Y1 - 2012/1
N2 - To date, the phenomenon of climate pledging has been little investigated. This paper describes the results of a questionnaire survey of 201 climate pledgers in Greater Manchester (UK), focusing on attitudes and behaviour relevant to environmental citizenship. In particular, attention is given to attitudes and behaviour related to renewable energy and micro-generation, selectively comparing with national UK data. The survey shows that installation cost and lengthy pay-back times have been major constraints on microgen installation not just for the general population, but also for those with a high degree of environmental commitment. Nonetheless, the microgen installation rate among the climate pledgers as of early 2011, before the introduction of feed-in tariffs, was at least 11 times higher than the national average. Using regression analyses, the best model that could be found for explaining installation of the most popular microgen technology, solar thermal, accounted for 27% of variance. Within this model, environmental commitment was of less importance than having given serious consideration to other microgen options. While this was possibly due to group homogeneity, in general, the results do emphasise the limits to environmental citizenship.
AB - To date, the phenomenon of climate pledging has been little investigated. This paper describes the results of a questionnaire survey of 201 climate pledgers in Greater Manchester (UK), focusing on attitudes and behaviour relevant to environmental citizenship. In particular, attention is given to attitudes and behaviour related to renewable energy and micro-generation, selectively comparing with national UK data. The survey shows that installation cost and lengthy pay-back times have been major constraints on microgen installation not just for the general population, but also for those with a high degree of environmental commitment. Nonetheless, the microgen installation rate among the climate pledgers as of early 2011, before the introduction of feed-in tariffs, was at least 11 times higher than the national average. Using regression analyses, the best model that could be found for explaining installation of the most popular microgen technology, solar thermal, accounted for 27% of variance. Within this model, environmental commitment was of less importance than having given serious consideration to other microgen options. While this was possibly due to group homogeneity, in general, the results do emphasise the limits to environmental citizenship.
KW - climate pledging
KW - environmental citizenship
KW - micro-generation
KW - Sustainability sciences, Communication
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84856935269&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13549839.2011.631991
DO - 10.1080/13549839.2011.631991
M3 - Journal articles
AN - SCOPUS:84856935269
VL - 17
SP - 75
EP - 91
JO - Local Environment
JF - Local Environment
SN - 1354-9839
IS - 1
ER -