Climate Change: Personal Responsibility and Energy Saving

We study at the individual level the connection between actions meant to reduce energy use and beliefs about personal responsibility on climate change mitigation. In addition, we also examine the role of human values and cross-country differences in shaping beliefs and behaviours. Using data from 23 (mostly) European countries, we find large heterogeneity in both beliefs and values, with richer countries being more likely to exhibit more concern about the environment. Personal responsibility and actual energy saving are positively correlated, but the correlation is not high. As regards human values, self-transcendence and openness are positively correlated with responsibility, while self-enhancement and conservation are negatively correlated. Values are instead not as correlated with energy saving, since we find only a positive correlation with conservation and a negative correlation with self-enhancement.