Harnessing Behaviour Change for Urban Climate Action
SUSTAINABILITYCLIMATE ACTION
This toolkit helps city leaders and policymakers design behaviour change interventions alongside climate policies so citizens are more likely to adopt low-carbon, resilient lifestyles, making urban climate initiatives more effective.
Created by:
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), One Planet Cities programme (2022).
What’s inside:
A playbook for city policymakers built around WWF’s Save Nature Please behaviour-change framework. It guides officials through defining target behaviours and audiences, diagnosing barriers and motivations, selecting behaviour change levers, and pilot-testing interventions.
The guide highlights six core behavioural levers, adapted from Rare’s research: inform (education), social influence, emotional appeals, incentives, choice architecture, and regulation. It also integrates the EAST framework, making climate-friendly actions Easy, Attractive, Social, and Timely.
Practical examples show how infrastructure alone (like building bike lanes) is not enough; citizens must also be nudged to use it through campaigns, defaults, or real-time feedback.
Available in:
English, Spanish.