ABSTRACT
Addressing anthropogenic climate change is now deemed to be one of the big challenges for mankind in the 21st century. Climate change is probably the sustainability problem par excellence with its manifold and complex links between economic growth, environmental and ecological systems, and social vulnerabilities (IPCC, 2007). While civil society initiatives for a low carbon lifestyle or corporate projects to develop low carbon business models are mushrooming, from a rational choice perspective it is clear that such voluntary initiatives must be met by public policies for at least three reasons: First, avoiding climate change constitutes a free-rider problem – individual initiators can reap only minor parts of the benefits but will bear the full costs (Stern, 2006); voluntary initiatives will therefore normally be limited to no-regret measures, moral economy niches and engaged social movements. Second, technological change toward a low-carbon economy – in line with an ecological modernization strategy (Huber, 2004; Jänicke, 2008) – needs public investments and reliable signals from markets and regulators. Third, behavioural change needs favourable social, cultural and infrastructural conditions that help to decrease the (perceived) opportunity costs of environmental consumption (Diekmann and Preisendörfer, 1998, 2003).
