Abstract:

A key challenge global society faces is how to engage the public on climate risk and educate individuals on their collective responsibility as consumers, workers, investors, and citizens. Here we test the hypothesis that introducing personalized feedback on the environmental impacts of a consumer’s frequent choices in one domain—urban mobility—can lower the carbon-intensity of those choices and spill over to environmental attitudes more generally. We recruited 330 university students into a semester-long randomized control trial. We tracked urban mobility choices and, for conditions other than a control, mapped these choices to personal carbon scores and messaged participants on the environmental co-benefits of taking public transport, including reduced carbon emissions, improved air quality, and active mobility. Participants who stood to receive rewards for low-carbon scores shifted their choices the most—away from single-rider car travel. Participants did not object to receiving personal carbon scores. We find evidence that the urban mobility intervention shifted climate change attitudes beyond the urban mobility domain. This research paves the way for a scalable fintech solution that integrates personal carbon tracking with real-time transportation choices, empowering climate leaders.