=Confronting the energy crisis: changing behaviours to reduce energy consumption=
Key messages
• Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine is strongly impacting energy markets worldwide, particularly in Europe and Asia, where gas and electricity prices reached all-time highs in 2022. Even though energy prices have moderated since late 2022, they are likely to stay high and volatile for some time. Without further demand reductions, challenges remain in securing sufficient storage levels for the 2023-24 winter (OECD, 2023[1]) .
• In some countries, high prices have incentivised some demand reductions from firms and households, with EU consumption of natural gas dropping by 20% in the period August-November 2022 compared to previous years. A relatively mild winter in Europe also helped moderating demand. However, the crisis calls for additional changes in behaviour to accompany long-term technical and structural solutions to lower gas demand and improve energy efficiency. • A large share of energy consumption in the EU comes from households - as a result, encouraging them to reduce their energy consumption could be crucial. Reducing households’ energy use can not only help curb the current crisis, but, if the reduction is sustained over time, it can also support the transition to net zero.
• Inducing behavioural change is less obvious than it might appear. A range of structural and psychological barriers make it hard for consumers to change their level of energy consumption. There is often a significant discrepancy between consumers’ knowledge, values, and intentions, and their observable energy behaviour — examples include the ‘knowledge-action gap’ and the ‘status-quo bias’.
• To counteract these barriers, governments can scale up information and policy instruments that provide clear evidence for users on the benefits of their behavioural changes and how to implement these changes. The impact of these interventions hinges on the choice of message that policymakers send to consumers, how and when the information is provided to households and through which channels. Moreover, it is crucial that the right incentives and policies are in place to ensure that behavioural changes can effectively take place. • The effectiveness of these interventions should be monitored to gauge evolutions in behaviours and research solutions to behavioural barriers.