IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/pophec/v22y2023i2p103-125.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Climate obligations and social norms

Author

Listed:
  • Stephanie Collins

Abstract

Many governments are failing to act sufficiently strongly on climate change. Given this, what should motivated affluent individuals in high-consumption societies do? This paper argues that social norms are a particularly valuable target for individual climate action. Within norm-promotion, the paper makes the case for a focus on anti-fossil fuel norms specifically. Section 1 outlines gaps in the existing literature on individuals’ climate change obligations. Section 2 characterises social norms. Section 3 provides seven reasons why social norms are a particularly worthy target for individual climate actors. Section 4 asks which social norms individuals should emphasise, arguing that anti-fossil fuel norms have advantages over emissions reduction and offsetting norms. Section 5 outlines the pathways and mechanisms individuals might exploit to promote anti-fossil fuel norms.

Suggested Citation

  • Stephanie Collins, 2023. "Climate obligations and social norms," Politics, Philosophy & Economics, , vol. 22(2), pages 103-125, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:pophec:v:22:y:2023:i:2:p:103-125
    DOI: 10.1177/1470594X231156930
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1470594X231156930
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/1470594X231156930?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gneezy, Uri & Rustichini, Aldo, 2000. "A Fine is a Price," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 29(1), pages 1-17, January.
    2. Adam Corner & Olga Roberts & Sybille Chiari & Sonja Völler & Elisabeth S. Mayrhuber & Sylvia Mandl & Kate Monson, 2015. "How do young people engage with climate change? The role of knowledge, values, message framing, and trusted communicators," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 6(5), pages 523-534, September.
    3. Fergus Green, 2018. "Anti-fossil fuel norms," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 103-116, September.
    4. Axelrod, Robert, 1986. "An Evolutionary Approach to Norms," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 80(4), pages 1095-1111, December.
    5. Eve Bratman & Kate Brunette & Deirdre C. Shelly & Simon Nicholson, 2016. "Justice is the goal: divestment as climate change resistance," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 6(4), pages 677-690, December.
    6. Finnemore, Martha & Sikkink, Kathryn, 1998. "International Norm Dynamics and Political Change," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 52(4), pages 887-917, October.
    7. Posner, Eric A, 1998. "Symbols, Signals, and Social Norms in Politics and the Law," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 27(2), pages 765-798, June.
    8. Ezra M. Markowitz & Azim F. Shariff, 2012. "Climate change and moral judgement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 243-247, April.
    9. Jamieson, Dale, 2007. "When Utilitarians Should Be Virtue Theorists," Utilitas, Cambridge University Press, vol. 19(2), pages 160-183, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Marco Grasso & J. David Tàbara, 2019. "Towards a Moral Compass to Guide Sustainability Transformations in a High-End Climate Change World," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(10), pages 1-16, May.
    2. Fabrizio Adriani & Silvia Sonderegger, 2018. "The Signaling Value of Punishing Norm-Breakers and Rewarding Norm-Followers," Games, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-32, December.
    3. Babutsidze, Zakaria & Chai, Andreas, 2018. "Look at me Saving the Planet! The Imitation of Visible Green Behavior and its Impact on the Climate Value-Action Gap," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(C), pages 290-303.
    4. Vollan, Björn & Landmann, Andreas & Zhou, Yexin & Hu, Biliang & Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2017. "Cooperation and authoritarian values: An experimental study in China," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 90-105.
    5. Nisbett, Nicole & Spaiser, Viktoria, 2022. "The Moral Power of Youth Climate Activists - Transforming International Climate Politics?," SocArXiv 5zsra, Center for Open Science.
    6. Jean‐Robert Tyran & Lars P. Feld, 2006. "Achieving Compliance when Legal Sanctions are Non‐deterrent," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 108(1), pages 135-156, March.
    7. Ella Muncie, 2021. "Investing in climate solutions? An exploration of the discursive power and materiality of fossil fuel divestment campaigns in Scotland," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(4), pages 537-547, December.
    8. Fergus Green, 2018. "Anti-fossil fuel norms," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 103-116, September.
    9. Michael J. Gilligan & Nathaniel H. Nesbitt, 2009. "Do Norms Reduce Torture?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 38(2), pages 445-470, June.
    10. Christine Horne, 2007. "Explaining Norm Enforcement," Rationality and Society, , vol. 19(2), pages 139-170, May.
    11. Vlad Tarko, 2015. "The role of ideas in political economy," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 28(1), pages 17-39, March.
    12. Eriksson,Lina Maria Jorun, 2015. "Social norms theory and development economics," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7450, The World Bank.
    13. Julia Sophie Woersdorfer, 2008. "From Status-Seeking Consumption to Social Norms. An Application to the Consumption of Cleanliness," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2008-10, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    14. Mathieu Blondeel & Jeff Colgan & Thijs Van deGraaf, 2019. "What Drives Norm Success? Evidence from Anti–Fossil FuelCampaigns," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 19(4), pages 63-84, November.
    15. Steininger, Lea & Hesse, Casimir, 2024. "Buying into new ideas: The ECB’s evolving justification of unlimited liquidity," Department of Economics Working Paper Series 357, WU Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    16. Leeson, Peter T., 2005. "Endogenizing fractionalization," Journal of Institutional Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 1(1), pages 75-98, June.
    17. H Peyton Young, 2014. "The Evolution of Social Norms," Economics Series Working Papers 726, University of Oxford, Department of Economics.
    18. Blanco, M. & Dalton, P.S. & Vargas, J.F., 2013. "Does the Unemployement Benefit Institution Affect the Productivity of Workers? Evidence from a Field Experiment," Other publications TiSEM ba37e033-06ab-4fc3-b56e-9, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    19. Gary Bolton & Eugen Dimant & Ulrich Schmidt, 2018. "When a Nudge Backfires. Using Observation with Social and Economic Incentives to Promote Pro-Social Behavior," PPE Working Papers 0017, Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Pennsylvania.
    20. Kverndokk, Snorre & Figenbaum, Erik & Hovi, Jon, 2020. "Would my driving pattern change if my neighbor were to buy an emission-free car?," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    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:sae:pophec:v:22:y:2023:i:2:p:103-125. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    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.