Starting in January of 2025, the participants in the Dutch National Citizens’ Assembly on Climate have been meeting once a month with one ultimate goal: to come up with advice for the Dutch government on how the Netherlands can be the most environmentally friendly when it comes to the food we eat, the stuff we use and how we get around. The assembly’s findings will inform government policy, which affects everyone, and the cabinet will have six months to figure out how to incorporate the assembly’s findings through discussions in the Dutch parliament.
The assembly – which consists of 175 participants that reflect the demographics of Dutch society in terms of gender, region, age, level of education and views on climate policy – is meeting six times (once a month) in the spring and summer of 2025. They will bring their own personal experiences to the table, see how Dutch organizations are currently handling sustainability in food, material use and transportation, and speak with experts from a range of fields to learn more about each of these topics.
During the 3rd meeting on March 8, the National Citizens’ Assembly on Climate engaged with over 50 experts. The participants had the chance to get answers to all of their questions through in-depth discussions with different experts who shared their knowledge from their respective fields.
Our colleague professor Linda Steg was one of the 50 experts invited to speak to the assembly participants and share her insights on what motivates people to behave sustainably, and what leads to people being more accepting of pro-environmental policy.
Here is a transcript of her video interview:
“My name is Linda Steg. I am a professor of environmental psychology in Groningen and I do research on what motivates people to behave pro-environmentally and what people think about environmental policies.
People are very interested in what motivates people now and what considerations they take into account when they make a choice. Do they only take their own interests into consideration, or do they also consider the impact on the environment?
Most people consider both, and they’re also very curious about the role of circumstances, which we talked about a lot. The choices we make are not just based on what matters to us, but they are also largely determined by access: if there isn’t a good public transportation connection, then you can’t use it. If products are not designed to be repairable, then you can’t get them fixed.
The circumstances we live in are also very important, so we talked about how behavior change means companies and governments need to start doing things differently.
Behavior can really have a significant impact on the quality of the environment, and the things that we do really do matter. Even if we as individuals can only do very little, there are a lot of individuals, and together, we can make a very big impact: we can have up to 40-70% less emissions if we change our behavior now.
And we can do that mainly by handling the stuff we use differently, and producing and eating food differently, and making more sustainable mobility choices. Those are exactly the themes we are talking about here at the citizens’ assembly.”
