In a new Conservative charter, David Cameron encourages householders to keep up with the Joneses’ – but only if they’re green.
In a speech this week to environmental leaders, David Cameron, the Conservative leader, announced his party’s plans to wean the British public off their dependence on the fossil fuels that drive climate change.
Telling people how much neighbours spend on gas and electricity is designed to encourage them to keep costs down and reduce their consumption of fossil fuels.
“I’m talking about reconfiguring the whole economy and overturning our whole hydrocarbon dependency,” he told an audience in London. “I’m talking about completely changing the way we heat our homes, travel to work and produce our food.”
As part of his green energy policy he said competition between neighbours needs to be kick-started to ensure each tries to be the greenest consumer in their streets.
Cameron wants to see energy bills reveal the average consumption of similar households so that neighbourly peer pressure would ensure people tried to consume more efficiently. Each house would also have smart metres allowing homeowners to see how much energy they were consuming minute-by-minute. The better prioritisation of energy efficiency is one of five key features of Cameron’s ‘Blue/Green Charter’.
Neighbourly conduct
The plan is to encourage 'positive social norms'. In plain English - it's the idea that one of the biggest influences on our behaviour is what we think is expected by the society around us, and what we see other people doing. So, if we see that all our neighbours' recycling bins are full, we end up recycling more ourselves.
Research in America has shown that the same is true for energy efficiency. If we find out that our neighbours, or households similar to ours, are using half as much energy as we are, then we're much more likely to bring our own consumption down in line.
