ATTITUDES TOWARD CLIMATE CHANGE RISK AND SUSTAINABLE LIFESTYLES IN THE UK

Abstract

Key to achieving tangible carbon emission reductions is the extent to which people are willing to take a proactive role in climate mitigation actions through changes in lifestyle and patterns of energy use. Previous research has mainly focused on people's responses to climate change and engagement with climate mitigation at a single level (e.g., individual or household level) and cross-sectionally. Little attention has been paid to longitudinal effects, or multilevel relationships. The thesis has three primary objectives. Firstly, it aims to explore patterns and dynamics of attitudes toward climate change risk (ACCRs) during the UK's carbon budget targets period. Secondly, it seeks to examine the longitudinal effect of change in income on ACCRs. Lastly, it offers a multilevel model for understanding the structure and significance of sustainable lifestyles in reducing household carbon emissions at the individual and household levels. The first paper applies k-means clustering to examine the classification and transitions of ACCRs between waves 4 and 10 of the UK Household Longitudinal Study (UKHLS). The results indicate temporal stability of three distinct attitude clusters: "Sceptical", "Concerned", and "Paradoxical". The "Sceptical" tend to deny the seriousness of climate change and the urgency or necessity of dealing with it. The "Concerned" display anxiety about climate change risks and support action to reduce them. The "Paradoxical" acknowledge the reality of climate change impacts but do not support behaviour changes to mitigate them. The study further suggests a general transition away from the "Sceptical" and "Paradoxical" clusters and toward the "Concerned" cluster between the two waves. The second paper employs the latent growth curve model to examine the relationship between income, educational attainment, the three ACCRs clusters and responsibility attribution for climate change, using waves 1, 4 and 10 of the UKHLS. The results demonstrate that income growth raises the odds of being concerned and reduces the odds of being either sceptical or paradoxical, mediated by attributing climate change to individual behaviours. The findings further suggest that as income goes up, people who have been to the university are more likely to believe that their behaviours contribute to the problem of climate change, which is more likely to lead them to hold concerned ACCRs and less likely to hold sceptical and paradoxical ACCRs. The third paper uses micro-macro multilevel modelling to investigate the contribution of day-to-day sustainable lifestyle to reducing household carbon emission in multiple occupancy households in wave 10 of the UKHLS. The results indicate that, when controlling for household income and household-related lifestyle (e.g., household size, dwelling, house ownership), energy-saving lifestyles significantly reduced housing-fuel-using emissions and this effect became more pronounced, while the effect of green transportation and consumption lifestyles on motor emissions became weaker. Each paper makes a significant theoretical contribution. Paper 1 extends the existing literature on attitudes classification by tracing UK ACCRs cluster trajectories at the population level during a period when the UK slashed carbon emissions. Paper 2 adds evidence to the economic-environment balance at the individual level by examining the effect of personal income growth on concerned, sceptical, and paradoxical ACCRs through the mediator of responsibility attribution and the moderator of education. Paper 3 disentangles the clustering effect of individual day-to-day sustainable lifestyles in reducing housing fuel use and motor emissions at the household level. Practically, the findings suggest the possibility of targeting policy interventions and creating information campaigns that are tailored towards the needs of specific groups with different risk attitude patterns and lifestyles. Knowledge of which residents and households are

Date of Award	31 Dec 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Mark Elliot (Supervisor) & Nicholas Shryane (Supervisor)