Popular support and citizen engagement are key to a successful green transition

We are facing the triple planetary crisis of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution. To avoid its potentially catastrophic impacts on the economy, human health and the natural resource base that underpin the future of growth, immediate and wide-scale action is needed. Governments need to tackle long-term, complex, interconnected and systemic challenges, while managing difficult trade-offs. But current progress remains far off the mark.

Citizens are seemingly not convinced with governments’ ability to tackle these challenges. The 2024 OECD Trust Survey shows that almost 70% of citizens feel their government should prioritise reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but only 42% are confident that their country will be able to do so in the next ten years. This exemplifies the trust deficit between policymakers and people.

Governments have long focused on climate and environmental policies targeting firms, but policymakers are paying growing attention to engaging individuals and citizens (i.e. every one of us), who are powerful drivers of change and can play an integral role in moving climate policy efforts forward. As citizens we live through climate policy implementation, experience the benefits and bear the costs. As individuals, we act and make behavioural choices, for ourselves, our households, or the places where we work. And as people, we share opinions, spread norms and shape cultures.

What does an effective government-citizen interface for climate action looks like? What can governments do to improve trust in government, citizen participation and public communication? And how can government policies “nudge” more environmentally sustainable individual behaviours?

Four key action areas stand out to unleash all the potential of “people power” for a greener future:

1) Access to transparent and open data is essential to build citizens’ trust in government action. Only 40% of citizens feel government decisions are based on the best available evidence and data (OECD Trust Survey). Governments need to leverage transparent and open access to data to better inform about green policy actions. Legal frameworks and guidelines are important to ensure relevant information is made available and readily accessible, but the pervasive nature of the climate problem poses challenges in terms of defining what information is relevant. Progress is being made on several fronts. For example, governments are increasingly gathering information on public attitudes and trust towards climate policies, as well as monitoring the carbon footprint of their activities and disclosing progress towards climate goals.

2) Access to information is not enough; governments need to build trust through public communication strategies, and effectively communicate on policy reforms and policy effectiveness. Surveys on public attitudes to climate policies show that perceptions about the effectiveness of policies (e.g. if they actually lead to emission reductions) and their distributional impacts (how costs and benefits are shared) are key drivers of policy support. So, public communication efforts can play a critical role in building compelling narratives, combating misinformation, and speaking to concerns about policy effectiveness and fairness. Here, some progress is being made. Governments are getting better at designing communication campaigns to motivate behavioural change, tailoring these to specific audiences and citizen needs. They are also coming up with innovative ways to engage with the public, for example through trusted third-party messengers such as community leaders or social media influencers.

3) It is critical to create more meaningful and inclusive opportunities for citizens to actively participate in policy- and decision-making processes, to be heard and see their concerns reflected in policy reform outcomes. Only 30% of people feel their political system gives them a voice (OECD Trust Survey). So, it is important to better engage citizens through innovative and people-centred approaches to policy design and implementation. Governments are increasingly turning to deliberative processes within climate policy making, institutionalising these within decision making, for example through establishing citizen assemblies on climate change (e.g. in Demark, Ireland, France, the Netherlands, the UK). They are also moving to integrate more diverse voices into the policy-making process, such as youth and indigenous communities. Access to information, communication and active participation are also key enablers of better accountability. The past years have shown a global surge of court-cases relating to climate change – most of them filed by NGOs and individuals – which allow the strengthening of the enforcement of environmental laws.

4) Behavioural science can help governments to “nudge” individuals towards greener behaviours. This is an area of enormous potential, and the so-called demand-side mitigation strategies are gaining traction among policymakers. Behavioural change (in transport, food, and building energy efficiency) could cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% to 70% by 2050 (the IPPC). The potential to reduce the environmental impacts of household consumption is well documented but has proven difficult to realise. So, understanding and overcoming the barriers to behaviour change must be a policy priority given the urgent need to ramp up action to limit climate change and improve environmental quality. The OECD Survey on Environmental Policies and Individual Behaviour Change (EPIC) digs deeper into household attitudes and behaviours, and their environmental implications, and how these decisions interact with government policies. Availability, affordability and convenience of greener options are key drivers of household decisions. This can provide useful guidance for designing demand-side mitigation policies. For example, government subsidies for home insulation or heat pumps alone will not be effective if qualified service providers are difficult to find (pointing to the need for more vocational training to increase such technical service providers). Discouraging higher-emission vehicle use (e.g. by a carbon tax on petrol or subsidizing EVs) may not work well if unaccompanied by infrastructure investment in convenient and affordable public transport or accessible EV charging stations.

To shift from the growth we have, to the green growth we want, we need all hands on deck to speed up and scale up action to tackle the triple planetary crisis. Governments and businesses have important roles to lead, and more proactive engagement of citizens/consumers/individuals can amplify our collective efforts in the green transition.