Breaking bad habits

DEEP-DIVE: Behavioural change requires radical system change. Fossil energy incumbents are banking on that not happening.

Changing people’s behaviour is a big task. It means uprooting an entrenched economic model that has created untold prosperity while pushing us to the brink of ecological collapse. Technology won’t save us, but it might buy some time for Big Oil companies that find themselves on the back foot in the climate debate. In the second instalment of this two-part series, Energy Flux looks at the impediments to behavioural change and what’s at stake in the quest to bend the oil demand curve. Part one is free to read here.

Photo by Ross Findon on Unsplash

An unprecedented attack on fossil fuel production and supply is gaining momentum. Last month’s historic shareholder rebellions at ExxonMobil and Chevron, and the landmark Dutch court ruling against Shell, could be seen as the opening salvos in a socio-political battle against hydrocarbons – a popular war on oil that is only going to intensify.

There is far less attention being paid to reducing demand for fossil energy and other natural resources…