Green campaigners and politicians must stop making people feel guilty about their behaviour if they are to persuade the public to take action on climate change, the Science Minister warned today.
Lord Drayson told The Times that bleak and pessimistic messages about the personal sacrifices required to cut carbon emissions risk alienating people whose support is essential to tackling the issue.
Few people will be willing to embrace a low-carbon lifestyle if they think it will significantly reduce their quality of life and the majority will only be convinced to live more sustainably if they feel it need not involve large sacrifices, he argued.
“I think if we focus too much on saying ’no, no, no’ and making people feel guilty, we tap into people’s negative side,” he said
“It has an effect - it has been effective in raising the profile - but it’s not going to work for everyone. I do think it’s wrong, because I don’t think human nature’s like that.”
Instead people should be persuaded that they can make a difference with small changes in behaviour that might even save them money. Lord Drayson, who discusses climate change today at The Times Cheltenham Science Festival wants scientists, environmentalists and politicians to articulate the message that many aspects of a greener lifestyle come with few costs and even with benefits.
Improvements to energy efficiency such as home insulation can make an important contribution to lowering carbon emissions and can reduce heating and electricity costs. People are also very willing to take practical environmental steps, such as separating and recycling rubbish when they have the facilities to do so, he said.
“I personally don’t believe it is going to be possible to persuade the vast majority of people to accept a poorer standard of quality of life,” he said. “I do think it’s possible to convince people they will be able to maintain a standard of quality of life more sustainably.
“It’s about using what we know about what motivates people, it’s about marketing. It’s about motivating people because it’s the right thing to do, but also because it’ll improve their lives.
“It’s about investing in the framework, the infrastructure that enables people. If you’ve got the bins around that enable people to separate their rubbish, generally they will do it.”
Lord Drayson, who has raced cars competitively in the British GT Championship and the American Le Mans Series, said he had been convinced of the need to be positive by the reaction of his competitors when his team switched to a sustainable biofuel in 2006.
“When I announced that for the next season we were going to go green, the opposition thought we had all gone soft, we weren’t so serious about competing, this was some sort of save the planet kick,” he said.
“They didn’t quite get it until the first race, when we qualified on pole and won. Then they went: ’Now we understand, it’s faster.’ That’s not the point: it wasn’t faster. The point was, it was no slower. You could do both, and the reaction from people was wow, a car can be quick and green.”
Lord Drayson, who founded the pharmaceutical company PowderJect before going into politics, said the demands of reducing greenhouse emissions offered a great opening for business - particularly in a recession.
“This is a great opportunity,” he said. “Going back to when I was in my 20s and thinking about what I wanted to do, which was also in the time of a recession, now’s a great time to start a business.
“Economic downturns are periods of real change, where incumbent businesses are dealing with the fact they’ve got the overheads, the infrastructure, the established way of doing business, and new entrants have a bit of an advantage in that because the market’s changing, because people are looking for new solutions. Now is a good time to start. I want to encourage young people to think about starting their own business.
“If you’re a young person with drive, be a green entrepreneur. Start a company that’s going to change the world by doing things better.”
Source:The times
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