Abstract
The threats of climate change to human well-being are well-documented and are growing in number and intensity. Despite the international community investing heavily in technological innovation and policy initiatives to solve the problem, emissions continue to rise. Experts are recognizing that eliminating emissions cannot be achieved without modifying the human behavior of which emissions are a function. However, little attention has been allocated to expanding the use of strategies developed by the behavioral-science community to reduce emissions on large scales. One possible reason is that federal funding has not been arranged to select such research. Therefore, we conducted an analysis of six sources of information about federal funding to fight climate change (the Government Accountability Office, the National Science Foundation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, the National Institutes of Health, and the Center for Disease Control) and examined the extent to which they are funding behavioral science research to reduce emissions. Our results show an appalling lack of funding for behavioral science research to reduce emissions, especially experimental evaluations of strategies for reducing them. Implications and recommendations for funding of future research are discussed.
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Notes
When our efforts were initiated, the CBSO consisted of the Association of Behavior Analysis International, the Association of Contextual Behavior Science, the Association of Positive Behavior Support, The Evolution Institute, the National Prevention Science Coalition, and the Society for Behavioral Medicine.
The exact Excel formula, (as well as the raw data for the entire analysis) are available in an open access online repository—see data availability for details.
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We thank Lisa Coyne, Tiffany Dubuc, Susan Schneider, Paul Stern, and Mark Van Ryzin for their thoughtful comments on prior versions of this article. We also thank Nicole Barton, Sophia Choi, Amy Impson, Elizabeth Meshes, Stergios Roussos, and Cary Trump for their help with data collection.
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Bonner, A.C., Biglan, A. & Drugan-Eppich, K. The Dismal State of Federal Funding for Experimental Evaluations of Interventions to Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions. Perspect Behav Sci 46, 5–34 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-021-00316-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-021-00316-9