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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - ECHOES (Energy CHOices supporting the Energy union and the Set-plan)

Teaser

Summary

Project objectives
ECHOES aims to support policy-makers and stakeholders with comprehensive information, data and knowledge from social science about how the Energy Union can be implemented. ECHOES builds on the transdisciplinary study of three technological foci: (1) smart energy technology, (2) energy in buildings, and (3) electric mobility. In doing so, ECHOES has four main objectives: (I) Creating understanding, (II) tackling cross-cutting issues through multi-disciplinary expertise, (III) provision of policy-ready recommendations, and (IV) making impact. The ECHOES project establishes a substantial dissemination and exploitation strategy to introduce the projectâ€™s findings into the important policy making fora. ECHOES functions also as an enabler of future behavioural research for the energy transition through making the data collected available to the public.

Work performed

The following research and dissemination activities have been implemented in the first reporting period:

1) Comprehensive literature review from the three ECHOES perspectives
Based on 597 individual sources a summary of the existing literature was presented and research gaps identified with the following main conclusions:
- Social science has produced a lot of (fragmented) findings about determinants of energy choices
- These findings lack a comprehensive, cross-disciplinary perspective
- On the micro-level, psychological models can explain how values, worldviews, personal and social norms, attitudes, habits and routines, objective and subjective constraints and facilitators interact to determine decisions; however, aspects of social identity and emotions are often neglected
- On the meso-level, energy lifestyles, energy cultures, place attachment, and energy memories can explain energy choices of social units by providing information about the social and historical embeddedness of energy behaviors
- On the macro-level, determinants, motivators, and barriers for energy decisions are partly overlapping, partly different for formal social units (such as energy providers who operate in a context of economy, infrastructure and regulations), collective decision making units (such as interest organizations who respond more strongly to incentives, existing structures, and environmental concerns), and individuals engaging in joint decisions (who mostly act like individuals in a rich multiverse of variables).

2) Two meta-analyses on the determinants of collective energy decisions
Two quantitative meta-analyses identified (a) the links between identity factors and environmental choices (based on 125 studies) and (b) the individual predictors of energy choices (bases on 102 studies). The main conclusions were the following:
- Environmental identity (generally) and connectedness to nature (especially for females) are identity components with a strong relation to environmental actions
- Identifying with a social group (e.g., inhabitants of a region) can have a positive impact on environmental actions, if that social group is associated with environmental actions
- Emotional processes (e.g., anticipating pride about energy savings) have a strong effect on energy behavior, especially for men

3) An analysis of social science energy data needs for the ECHOES database
Based on a small survey, an analysis of avaliable databases, and an expert workshop, the following needs for social science data were identified:
- Available data sources are scattered and often not compatible
- Especially reliable data on consumer choices, energy culture, acceptance, energy poverty, and prosumers is missing

4) A policy potential analysis conducted on policy and strategy documents
Based on an analysis of policy and strategy documents from the EU, Member State, and regional level, the following conclusions for the policy potential of social science knowledge were drawn:
- The consumer perspective has moved from the periphery to the center of the policy attention
- The utilization of social science knowledge is so far mostly restricted to â€œthe consumer needs more and reliable informationâ€ and â€œthe consumer needs powerful economic incentivesâ€
- This neglegts the richness of social science which knows a lot more about drivers of decisions besides information deficit and rational economic decision-making

5) An analysis of parameters determining similarities and differences between decision-making levels
Based on a review of the literature, 15 focus groups and 67 individual interviews a comprehensive study was conduced on similarities and differences of social units. The main conclusions were:
- Formal and collective units act mostly based on the market structure and more strongly if company interests and government strategies conform
- Individuals on the other hand act based on a richer set of parameters, including individual perceptions, priorities, h

Final results

ECHOES has so far provided progress beyond the state-of-the-art by a number of the activities described under the work conducted: (1) the comprehensive literature review from the three ECHOES perspective gives through its comprehensive and cross-disciplinary approach a unique understanding of the drivers of collective energy choices; (2) ECHOES has conducted two meta-analyses which are based on more than 100 papers each and give new insights into identity aspects impacting energy decisions; (3) ECHOES has conducted a unique analysis of policy and strategy documents and indicated strategies for unlocking the potential of social science; (4) ECHOES has provided two reports, one identifying drivers of energy choices across several European cultures and one deriving policy recommendations.
In the second half of the project, the main focus of the work will be on empirical work (large-scale, trans-European data collections), and synthesizing the results into policy ready recommendations. Workshops with policy makers are planned and the ECHOES database making the new findings accessible is in the design stage.
A multi-method empirical approach to filling the research gaps will be implemented, which will include the following data collection activities in the second reporting period:
- A survey in 30 countries with more than 15.000 respondents addressing identity, emotional drivers, economic decision-making, and energy lifestyles
- An empirical study of energy memories in 6 countries in discussion groups and case studies
- Case studies in 6 countries to energy decisions on different social levels
- Psychological experiments to study identity processes