Culturally adapted behavioral interventions for promoting residential energy conservation in the Baltic Sea region


Field: Economics, Psychology, Sociology
Project leader: Andrius Kažukauskas
Starting year: 2024
Project type: Project
Total funding: SEK 5,992,000

Despite numerous calls for action and policy efforts by international organizations, the public response to the global climate crisis has been insufficient and varies greatly between countries and cultures, as is apparent in the Baltic Sea region. Research into behavioral interventions to promote sustainable energy consumption and climate change mitigation strategies has thus far largely ignored cultural differences. By using interdisciplinary knowledge from economics, sociology, and psychology, drawn from the western and eastern shores of the Baltic, this project will determine how effective culturally adapted interventions are in the Baltic Sea region and assess how the public response to energy conservation interventions differs in three countries – Lithuania, Estonia, and Sweden. For the three-year period, the project will implement three work packages: 1) assessment of the current residential energy saving policies in the Baltic Sea countries; 2) designing effective culturally adapted behavioral interventions for a sample of three Baltic Sea countries; 3) assessment of the longitudinal effects of pro-social norms triggering behavioral interventions concerning residential energy conservation in Lithuania and Sweden. The project’s final report, which will summarize the findings of the project as a whole, will provide Baltic Sea climate policy stakeholders with effective, culturally adapted tools to facilitate the achievement of energy security and climate goals.