IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/masfgc/v18y2013i6p773-783.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The gap between global issues and personal behaviors: pro-environmental behaviors of citizens toward climate change in Kaohsiung, Taiwan

Author

Listed:
  • Shis-Ping Lin

Abstract

Taiwan ranks 22nd worldwide in greenhouse gas emissions. One-third of these emissions come from the city of Kaohsiung, Taiwan. To mitigate global warming, the Taiwanese government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of environmental protection have promoted a series of energy conservation methods based on citizens’ pro-environmental behaviors. This research sorts these pro-environmental behaviors into five categories: diet, clothing, housing, transport, and recreation; further, it assesses them empirically by applying the theory of planned behavior (TPB) to a survey of 223 Kaohsiung residents. With the application of structural equation modeling, the indicators for each of these five models showed a good fit to the TPB, with goodness-of-fit (GFI) and adjusted goodness-of-fit (AGFI) values of 0.8 and above, comparative fit index (CFI) of 0.9 and above, and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) below 0.08. From these results, this research found that attitudes toward global warming influence citizens’ pro-environment behavioral intentions; in particular, perceived behavior control played an important role in the model. This research suggests that people will accept pro-environmental behaviors if they perceive evidence of the usefulness and convenience of these behaviors. “Keep it simple” might be a good byword for promoting energy conservation methods. Nevertheless, it seems that it will be hard to change citizens’ appetite or travel habits to mitigate global warming without providing clear, strong incentives. Copyright The Author(s) 2013

Suggested Citation

  • Shis-Ping Lin, 2013. "The gap between global issues and personal behaviors: pro-environmental behaviors of citizens toward climate change in Kaohsiung, Taiwan," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 18(6), pages 773-783, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:18:y:2013:i:6:p:773-783
    DOI: 10.1007/s11027-012-9387-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1007/s11027-012-9387-1
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11027-012-9387-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Aysel Tikir & Bernard Lehmann, 2011. "Climate change, theory of planned behavior and values: a structural equation model with mediation analysis," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 389-402, January.
    2. Abrahamse, Wokje & Steg, Linda, 2009. "How do socio-demographic and psychological factors relate to households' direct and indirect energy use and savings?," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 30(5), pages 711-720, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Chih-Ching Teng & Chueh Chih & Yao-Chin Wang, 2020. "Decisional Factors Driving Household Food Waste Prevention: Evidence from Taiwanese Families," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-15, August.
    2. April Karen Baptiste & Adelle Thomas, 2018. "Knowledge, perceptions, concerns, and behaviors—moving forward in the Caribbean context," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(1), pages 99-103, March.
    3. Hongyun Si & Jian-gang Shi & Daizhong Tang & Shiping Wen & Wei Miao & Kaifeng Duan, 2019. "Application of the Theory of Planned Behavior in Environmental Science: A Comprehensive Bibliometric Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(15), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Liang-Chu Ho & Yu-Hsien Sung & Chia-Chun Wu & Pei-Shan Lee & Wen-Bin Chiou, 2020. "Envisaging Mitigation Action Can Induce Lower Discounting toward Future Environmental Gains and Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, November.
    5. Dirk-Jan van de Ven & Mikel González-Eguino & Iñaki Arto, 2018. "The potential of behavioural change for climate change mitigation: a case study for the European Union," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(6), pages 853-886, August.
    6. Yingying Sun & Ziqiang Han, 2018. "Climate Change Risk Perception in Taiwan: Correlation with Individual and Societal Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, January.
    7. Tiberio Daddi & Niccolò Maria Todaro & Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Marco Frey, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Use of Organization and Management Theories in Climate Change Studies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 456-474, May.
    8. Angela Yi Jing Tsai & Alex Yong Kwang Tan, 2022. "The Expanded Theory of Planned Behavior in the Context of Environmental Protection Behaviors for Undergraduates: Roles of Moral Norms and University Class Standings," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(15), pages 1-15, July.
    9. Wei-Ta Fang & Eric Ng & Yong-Shen Zhan, 2018. "Determinants of Pro-Environmental Behavior among Young and Older Farmers in Taiwan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, June.
    10. April Karen Baptiste, 2018. "Climate change knowledge, concerns, and behaviors among Caribbean fishers," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 8(1), pages 51-62, March.
    11. Iddrisu Amadu & Charles Atanga Adongo, 2022. "Climate Action (Goal 13): The role of climate beliefs, health security and tourism prioritisation in 30 Sub-Saharan African countries," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 171(3), pages 1-25, April.
    12. Shis-Ping Lin, 2015. "Raising Public Awareness: The Role of the Household Sector in Mitigating Climate Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, October.
    13. Nugun Patrick Jellason & Richard N. Baines & John S. Conway & Chukwuma C. Ogbaga, 2019. "Climate Change Perceptions and Attitudes to Smallholder Adaptation in Northwestern Nigerian Drylands," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-20, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shis-Ping Lin, 2015. "Raising Public Awareness: The Role of the Household Sector in Mitigating Climate Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-17, October.
    2. Liu, Chang & Lin, Boqiang, 2020. "Is increasing-block electricity pricing effectively carried out in China? A case study in Shanghai and Shenzhen," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    3. Xu, Xiaojing & Chen, Chien-fei & Zhu, Xiaojuan & Hu, Qinran, 2018. "Promoting acceptance of direct load control programs in the United States: Financial incentive versus control option," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 1278-1287.
    4. Anna Borawska & Mariusz Borawski & Małgorzata Łatuszyńska, 2022. "Effectiveness of Electricity-Saving Communication Campaigns: Neurophysiological Approach," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-19, February.
    5. Menrad, K. & Emberger-Klein, A. & Schops, J., 2018. "Factors influencing consumers behavioral intention towards climate-friendly food consumption in Southern Germany," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277108, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Guo Li & Wenling Liu & Zhaohua Wang & Mengqi Liu, 2017. "An empirical examination of energy consumption, behavioral intention, and situational factors: evidence from Beijing," Annals of Operations Research, Springer, vol. 255(1), pages 507-524, August.
    7. Mohamed, Ahmed M.A. & Al-Habaibeh, Amin & Abdo, Hafez & Elabar, Sherifa, 2015. "Towards exporting renewable energy from MENA region to Europe: An investigation into domestic energy use and householders’ energy behaviour in Libya," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 247-262.
    8. Nieves García-de-Frutos & José Manuel Ortega-Egea & Javier Martínez-del-Río, 2018. "Anti-consumption for Environmental Sustainability: Conceptualization, Review, and Multilevel Research Directions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(2), pages 411-435, March.
    9. Penelope Buckley, 2020. "Prices, information and nudges for residential electricity conservation : A meta-analysis," Post-Print hal-02500507, HAL.
    10. Simona-Roxana Ulman & Costica Mihai & Cristina Cautisanu, 2020. "Peculiarities of the Relation between Human and Environmental Wellbeing in Different Stages of National Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(19), pages 1-26, October.
    11. Nicholas R. Magliocca, 2020. "Agent-Based Modeling for Integrating Human Behavior into the Food–Energy–Water Nexus," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-25, December.
    12. Salari, Mahmoud & Javid, Roxana J., 2016. "Residential energy demand in the United States: Analysis using static and dynamic approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 637-649.
    13. Waris, Idrees & Hameed, Irfan, 2019. "Using Extended Model of Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Purchase Intention of Energy Efficient Home Appliances in Pakistan," MPRA Paper 109612, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Ting Yue & Ruyin Long & Junli Liu & Haiwen Liu & Hong Chen, 2019. "Empirical Study on Households’ Energy-Conservation Behavior of Jiangsu Province in China: The Role of Policies and Behavior Results," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-16, March.
    15. Li-Hsing Shih & Yi-Cin Jheng, 2017. "Selecting Persuasive Strategies and Game Design Elements for Encouraging Energy Saving Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-18, July.
    16. Jacqueline Corbett, 2013. "Using information systems to improve energy efficiency: Do smart meters make a difference?," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 15(5), pages 747-760, November.
    17. Kendel, Adnane & Lazaric, Nathalie & Maréchal, Kevin, 2017. "What do people ‘learn by looking’ at direct feedback on their energy consumption? Results of a field study in Southern France," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 108(C), pages 593-605.
    18. Thøgersen, John & Grønhøj, Alice, 2010. "Electricity saving in households--A social cognitive approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(12), pages 7732-7743, December.
    19. Litvine, Dorian & Gazull, Laurent & Dabat, Marie-Hélène, 2014. "Assessing the potential demand for biofuel by combining Economics and Psychology: A focus on proximity applied to Jatropha oil in Africa," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 85-95.
    20. Manfred Lenzen & Murukesan Krishnapillai & Deveraux Talagi & Jodie Quintal & Denise Quintal & Ron Grant & Simpson Abraham & Cindy Ehmes & Joy Murray, 2014. "Cultural and socio‐economic determinants of energy consumption on small remote islands," Natural Resources Forum, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 38(1), pages 27-46, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:masfgc:v:18:y:2013:i:6:p:773-783. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.