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DESIGNING FOR EFFECTIVE CLIMATE CHANGE COMMUNICATION: INCREASING RECYCLING BEHAVIOUR AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS

Although technological solutions may help to reduce carbon emissions, reducing carbon emissions through behaviour change may be a low cost and effective strategy. Individuals, can contribute to reducing their personal carbon emissions by taking action. Unfortunately, wherever behaviour change has been a policy focus in climate change mitigation, there has been a tendency to adopt information deficit models (IDM) focussing only on provision of the factual information based on the assumption that the right information would bring about the desired behaviour change. However, this assumption has been proved to be false in many instances over the years. Thus, many studies have criticized IDM for being highly simplified and inaccurately hypothesizing the relationship between knowledge and climate-friendly behaviour suggesting that knowledge alone does not result in desired behaviour change (BC).

Current applications of behaviour change communication (BCC) models emphasise the need to understand factors which influence an individual to change as well as an individual’s stage in the change process recognising that different stages of change have different information needs and approaches to move the individual to the next.

At pre-contemplation stage, individuals are often unaware of the problem hence require factual information (knowledge). At contemplation (awareness) stage, individuals have ambivalent feeling hence they require more information about the benefits of doing something as well as the risks of not doing it to make informed decision. Preparation stage is concerned with developing skills that are needed to perform a particular behaviour for individuals to be able to undertake the desired action. Action involves implementation of the needed practices while maintenance is concerned with sustaining the desired behaviour and preventing relapse to earlier undesired behaviours. An individual can drop back or jump over stages. Successful climate change communication requires better understanding of what the audience knows as well as what their values, beliefs and attitudes are. The Designing for Behaviour Change (DBC) Framework is a tool primarily used to identify behavioural determinants across many different sectors seeking to influence change. As pointed out by The Technical and Operational Performance Support (TOPS) Technical and Operational Performance Support Program, “it is not practical to develop a DBC Framework for all the behaviours” hence the focus here is on understanding how to promote recycling behaviour among secondary school pupils because despite promoting such behaviour in the past, such change has been difficult to influence in pupils across the world. DBC framework can be used to assess enablers and barriers to recycling behaviour among secondary school pupils in any context.

Behaviour refers to the desired action: secondary school pupils recycling 80% of the household solid waste generated at home each week. Priority Group refers to the group of people to be encouraged to adopt the behaviour, for our case, pupils. The Influencing Group is the group that a specific audience identifies as having the most influence regarding their adoption of the behaviour and in our case they are likely to be parents, teachers and friends. Determinants: Determinants represent a person’s feelings, beliefs or other elements within his or her environment that can support him or her to do a desired behaviour. A barrier analysis is conducted to compares factors which influence those who recycle to those who do not recycle with a view of understanding how to promote recycling behaviour by reducing negative perceptions and reinforcing positive perceptions.

Positive consequences (perception) •	Saves energy. •	Reduces pollution. •	Reduces consumption of raw materials/saves natural resources. •	Reduces demand for landfill sites/conserves landfill space. •	Reduces greenhouse gas emissions.

Negative consequences (perception) •	Difficult to access recycling facilities. •	Requires complex skills •	Requires a lot of time •	Against social norms •	Requires many people

Bridges to Activities are specific actions that can be done to address the challenges to adopting a particular behaviour and to reinforce enablers. In our case above, we could: •	Increase access to recycling facilities and enhance recyclable waste collection service. •	Decrease negative social norms. •	Increase perception that an individual’s actions can make a difference. •	Increase group participation to develop a social norm. •	Improve knowledge and skills in recycling. •	Reduce the perception that individuals cannot make a difference. •	Reinforce perception that recycling saves energy. •	Reinforce perception that recycling reduces pollution, consumption of resources, demand for landfill site and greenhouse gas emissions.

Activities (indicators): Activities are tasks that the entity seeking change implement to create the bridges above. For example, the government could:

•	Construct recycling services in convenient locations •	Promote group participation in recycling so that recycling becomes a social norm •	Provide group hands-on activities and lessons in recycling •	Provide affordable recycling bins •	Distribute maps showing location of recycling facilities and drop-off centres.

For climate change communication to be effective in promoting recycling behaviour among secondary school pupils, teachers have to focus their communication on enablers of recycling behaviours as well as understanding the stage of change their pupils are at, to ensure that they provide relevant information rather than adopting a ‘one size fit all’ approach while government has to invest or promote investment in recycling infrastructure.