Climate change and mitigation policies are still understudied while discussing to understand the perception of consumers. Command and control policies are needed. These policies address realistic changes in consumption behavior. Such changes involve shifts in attitudes, norms, or even practices (Namakula, 2021). However, price sensitivity and environmental tension in their effects to consumers behaviour is not comprehensively investigated when discussing the responsibilities of green consumption (Yue et al., 2020). Green consumption depends on the responsible attitudes towards the environment friendly behaviour of both organizations and individuals (Gonçalves et al., 2016; Semprebon et al., 2019 and Urban et al., 2019). The goal of cutting CO2 emissions and achieving carbon neutrality for countries over the world under Paris Climate Agreement will not be successful disregarding the consumers’ contribution (De Marchi et al., 2022).
Table of Contents
Vulnerability to Climate Change
Energy sector is the major contributor of vulnerability to climate change. It requires rigorous studies on climate change adaptation at regional levels (Sukri and Wah, 2021). However, there exists a value-action gap while consumers are taking buying decisions of green products. Although environmental awareness, concern, and knowledge are not significant, price and availability of the green products are playing significant role in the consumers’ purchasing behaviors (Ibrahim et al., 2022). With the use of natural resources, household consumption is one of the main contributors of global CO2 emissions. Thus, the irresponsible production and consumption are increasing vulnerabilities to climate change and reducing the readiness to cope up with the extreme climatic events (Reisch et al., 2021). Atkinson (2014) found that there were expectations and substantial works from theoretical perspectives. However, the movement towards green production was not successful. Because there are complexities in consumer behaviour (akehurst et al., 2012) and paradoxical relationship between the consumers’ purchasing attitude and environmental consensus (Rafi-Ul-Shan et al., 2018).
Consumers’s Behaviour
Household behaviour was usually considered as an indispensable element when forming climate policies in developed nations (Sanne, 2002) but it is still a big question that whether the current climate change policy strategies sufficiently integrate consumers’ perception at household level (Dubois et al., 2019). In these respects, comprehensive studies are needed. These studies should assess how much knowledge and perception consumers have at the household level. This assessment helps in understanding their responsibilities. It also evaluates their abilities to cope with climate change and its mitigation policies.
Conclusion
In order to test the effects of consumer behaviour in taking responsibility and expressing intentions towards environmental sustainability, a measure of ‘General Environmental Responsiveness’ can be used (Wells et al., 2011). Extant theoretical and empirical studies identify the importance of consumers’ behaviour regarding environmental improvements. However, there is limited investigation into consumers’ attitudes. Additionally, perceptions of consumers have not been extensively investigated. Factors influencing these attitudes on a nation-wide scale have not been explored thoroughly (Syropoulos and Markowitz, 2022). In dealing with climate policies, consumers prefer low-cost climate-friendly behaviour as high-cost behaviour is beyond their capacity (Tobler et al., 2012).
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