Net Zero: principles for successful behaviour change initiatives. Key principles from past government-led behaviour change and public engagement initiatives, BEIS Research Paper Number 2021/063 October 2021. “The Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) was commissioned by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to undertake a rapid review and synthesis of successful (and to a lesser extent, unsuccessful) government-led behaviour change initiatives. Drawing lessons from the past 70 years, in the UK and OECD, we have distilled 9 principles that can be applied to encourage societal-level behaviour change on a scale necessary to achieve Net Zero.

Downstream interventions focus on individuals – their attitudes, choices, and actions. Most simply, a government campaign might ask or implore citizens to behave differently. A well-known example would be the UK’s‘hands, face, space’ campaign during the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as decades of public health campaigns encouraging us to eat more healthily (e.g., 5-a-day) or exercise more. Such campaigns can be delivered effectively, or not..”