Behavioral interventions to support public policies for energy-saving and carbon reduction

Understanding the behavioural drivers of household energy consumption and carbon emissions is essential to designing effective public policies for energy saving and the energy transition. This thesis investigates these drivers through three essays, combining observational data analysis, survey-based research, and incentivised online experiments across different European contexts. The first essay examines households’ behavioural response to the 2022 energy price shock, revealing that consumption decisions appear to be more coherent with a reaction to absolute price levels than by relative price changes. It also shows that consumption is reallocated from peak to off-peak time bands, and that this pattern is consistent across income groups. Finally, households from low-income municipalities consume less energy overall and allocate more of their consumption to off-peak hours, shedding light on the issue of energy poverty. The second essay investigates the personal and behavioural determinants of active participation in the energy transition (energy citizenship), showing that traits such as trust, patience, and locus of control shape energy citizenship in ways that vary across national contexts. The third essay examines the behavioral drivers of voluntary carbon offsetting decisions, highlighting that the salience of an activity’s carbon footprint increases offsetting contributions. On the other hand, the decision to actively avoid or seek information about emissions will either increase or decrease compensations for carbon emissions. Taken together, the results show that households rarely respond to energy and climate-related incentives in a purely rational, fully informed way. Perceptions of energy prices, trust in institutions, locus of control and the salience or avoidance of information all systematically influence decisions relating to energy and carbon reduction. These findings suggest that policies aimed at accelerating energy conservation, the energy transition and carbon reduction should incorporate behavioural design and encourage citizens to actively participate in energy decision-making.