Will short-term behavior changes during the COVID-19 crisis evolve into low-carbon practices?

Abstract

During the Covid-19 pandemic, many people have changed established routines in everyday life, often involuntarily. Some of these changes implied a lowering of carbon emissions. Will this behavior change lead to sustainable habits that extend beyond the pandemic? Recapitulating conditions of behavior change, we suggest policy measures that could support a lasting adoption of low-carbon habits. In the course of the COVID-19 crisis, there were a number of behavioral adaptations to the extraordinary conditions that temporarily reduced individual carbon footprints. The question is whether these short-term changes will evolve into sustainable behavioral habits and how to support these changes through policy measures. During the three waves of the pandemic, there has been an increase in surveys as well as in social science studies and research in Germany and other countries on the topic of behavioral changes due to the pandemic. The paper recapitulates what is known about behavior change from psychology and sociology, and synoptically summarizes the preliminary findings from the empirical studies conducted so far. The emphasis will be on the behavioral changes, with a focus on mobility and work routines, as witnessed in Germany. However, the insights from Germany may also shed a light on similar processes in other countries.