Influencing Human Environmental Behaviour through Behavioural Policy

Humans affect the environment in various ways: through resource extraction, industrialisation, urbanisation, etc. The impact of these developments is felt in different ways: air pollution, climate change, extinction of species and depletion of key resources, to name a few. Behavioural policy seeks to soften the impact of humans on the environment though there are certain behavioural tendencies characterising humans which act as roadblocks to environmental conservation: giving the present much more importance than the future, preferring the status quo to an alternative state, reluctance to be first movers in going against community norms, etc. This chapter reviews human environmental behaviour and the mentioned roadblocks to environmental conservation; it then uses the relevant literature to suggest ways in which policy can be used to improve the human relationship with the environment.