IMPLEMENTING THE DECLARATION OF THE

 60TH ANNUAL DPI/NGO CONFERENCE

Attitude Change 

Working Group

The purpose of this working group is to review the successful procedures developed by sociologists and psychologists for changing attitudes and behaviors and apply these procedures in order to achieve mitigation of the effects of climate change. The implementation of these attitude and behavioral changes will lead to a reduction of change in climate and will increase resilience to the already present negative effects of climate change. Specific actions will be recommended that can be implemented by UN agencies, governments and civil society at large.

The report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) challenged us to develop effective global responses to address climate change. The response necessitates changing attitudes and behaviors that will lead to the reduction of greenhouse emissions and the development of attitudes and behaviors that will strengthen people’s resilience in the face of the negative changes that are already occurring around the world, especially in developing countries. 

The key element to mitigation is change of attitude and behavior of people in all the nations of the world whatever their status or role.  The changes required are many and large:  as the President of WFUNA, Hans Blix, recently stated:  “Nuclear disarmament only requires twelve governments to change their ways; climate change, 6.5 billion people.”  (Sydney Morning Herald, 29 September 2007). The social sciences (psychology and sociology) have been successful in developing theories and procedures for changing behavior and attitudes and this expertise is needed now to deal with the challenges of climate change. The effectiveness of social science theories and resulting practices is attested to by the changing attitudes and behavior toward such issues as smoking tobacco, HIV/AIDS, exploitation of children and women, etc. Our behaviors are related to our attitudes and our attitudes derive from our cognitions (our information, knowledge and experiences), our values (derived from our family, culture, education, religion) and rewards (that which bring us satisfaction, pleasure and the things we desire). 

Current Membership

The working group will meet in person when possible but will include members away from UN Headquarters through conference calls and email communications

This section will propose concrete action items and solutions based on current scientific evidence .These are intended to be implemented in a spirit of partnership among multiple agencies and NGOs by focusing on the superordinate goal of a safe planet (a superordinate goal is one which cannot be achieved by on person or group alone but only by a cooperative effort among all affected).

Recommendations will cover several areas, including:

a.   Reviewing the various social science theories of attitude and behavioral change

b.   Determining the behavioral and attitudinal changes we want to bring about

c.   Determining the appropriate change process(es) to be implemented

d.   Describing programs and procedures for implementation of the change process(es)

e.   Describing procedures for assessing and monitoring the change process(es) after the specific change has occurred, as well as on a continuous basis, in order to ensure that the change is having the intended effects (and to identify and correct unintended effects, if any)

f.    Providing training and education to equip individuals and groups with practical psychological skills needed to make effective changes in the lives of individuals and their societies

g.   Coordinating efforts among NGOs, UN agencies, governments, civil society and social scientists to address psychological and sociological factors in the context of climate change

h.   Sharing information about our efforts to bring about attitude and behavioral change with media and professional associations.