The Role of Health in Households’ Balancing Act for Lifestyles Compatible with the Paris Agreement—Qualitative Results from Mannheim, Germany

Abstract

Household lifestyles are the main drivers of climate change. Climate change mitigation measures directed to households often have substantial health co-benefits. The European mixed-methods study HOPE (HOuseholds’ Preferences for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in four European high-income countries) investigates households’ preferences for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and particularly researches the role of information on health co-benefits in households’ decision making. The results presented in this study are derived from 18 qualitative interviews, conducted with a subsample of households from Mannheim, Germany. The in-depth interviews were transcribed verbatim, analyzed with a qualitative content analysis, supported by NVivo software. They showed that, in order to reduce their greenhouse gas emission in a way compatible with the 1.5 °C goal, households have to undertake a difficult balancing act, considering factors from the individual sphere, such as health co-benefits, as well as from the public sphere, such as (climate) policies. Shared responsibility and equity are important aspects of households. In conclusion, health is an important factor in households’ decision making. However, information policies about health co-benefits need to go along with structural policy measures, in order to support households effectively in the implementation of healthy and climate-friendly lifestyles, especially in sectors where behavior change is difficult, like the mobility sector.

Rethinking the Governance of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in the COVID-19 Era

“…To this goal, the identification of types of arguments is crucial, which requires the use of software assisted by human coders to identify cooccurrences of individual arguments. In our study, we used NVIVO 12, a software commonly employed in qualitative research (e.g., [56,57]). We created a structure of categories ('codes' or 'nodes' in NVIVO terminology) that reflected the structure of our model, so we found no need of refining the codes [58].…”

How Will COVID-19 Impact on the Governance of Global Health in the 2030 Agenda Framework? The Opinion of Experts

“…During recent years, and especially during this crisis, many countries have increased their nationalistic Hobbesian stance, undermining or defecting from the international consensus, under the assumption that many other countries will remain faithful to it (66). These responses damage not only the current willingness to cooperate but also the trust in future cooperation needed to protect our planetary common resources (34,42), and might even undermine our capabilities to fight the virus (30).…”

“…Nevertheless, we have seen that being global entails certain risks (42): high interdependence in terms of production (global value chains) and international human movements have influenced the rapid expansion of the pandemic, so it is more than probable that a new order will emerge in which solutions to this interdependence must be found (61, 108, 140), perhaps with a relevant role played by international cooperation rather than the implementation of protectionists measures (88). Many voices are being raised against this selfish behavior (22), calling for a more cooperative and holistic approach (29,145), especially in terms of emphasizing the importance of multilateral platforms (30) and the need to provide greater support to developing countries (30,34), because of the need to make sure that they are able to manage this crisis (27,33,34,38).…”

“…Most of developed countries, even those in the EU, are traditionally committed to international cooperation (13,111), but the US especially, whose lower-income population layers are currently suffering the consequences of having been abandoned by the system (25), are unveiling support measures for their citizens, with funds that they are likely to withdraw from other SDGs and from their international cooperation budgets (85, 98, 132, 147). If the economic slowdown persists, the 2030 Agenda implementation will be negatively impacted (27,34,140), even though all countries have agreed to support it in the long term. Governments are asking their citizens to endure severe constraints in the present, for the sake of positive impacts that will be felt in the future (29).…”

“…The current COVID-19 crisis is a global problem, and as such it requires a global response (75, 106, 132). Thus, coordination problems appear, as only one free rider is needed to sabotage the chances of defeating the virus (34,117). Additionally, different state preferences (which will be reviewed below) hinder a common international approach to this menace and to development in general (104, 120).…”