Individual behaviour, the social sciences and climate change

Individual behaviour is an important aspect of climate mitigation. After an initial focus on large industrial sources, developments in the social and behavioural sciences and legal theory in the 1990s and early 2000s have supported the development of new initiatives targeted at individuals and households. The initiatives have included local, state and national government use of traditional regulatory measures, market mechanisms and behavioural interventions. In recent years, gridlock in the US and other countries over climate policy also has led to increasing use of private and public-private hybrid initiatives in climate change mitigation. The complex influences on individual behaviour and the challenges of designing and implementing large-scale, effective interventions have resulted in large gaps in existing knowledge and many opportunities for research in law, policy and social science.