How do local government units in your country inspire citizens to save electricity and/or heat, conserve water sparingly, segregate waste, and other pro-environmental daily practices and actions?

How do local government units, including municipalities, as part of their pro-environmental and pro-climate policies, inspire citizens to save electricity and/or heat, conserve water sparingly, segregate waste and other pro-environmental, everyday practices and actions?

There have been many different crises since the beginning of the 21st century, and there is little indication that this would change in the years to come. The dotcom crisis at the turn of the 20th/XXI century, the global financial crisis of 2007-2009, the global recession of the 2020 economy triggered by interventionist measures carried out during the 1st wave of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, the overly lenient monetary policy carried out during the pandemic, the strong rise in inflation and the risk of stagflation in 2020, the currently developing energy crisis, the currently developing food crisis in some poorer countries, the already ongoing climate crisis that will intensify in the coming decades. As the levels of various risks increase, the scales and frequency of various crises increase, more and more public institutions, government agencies, NGOs but also local government units are taking various anti-crisis measures. Currently, the currently developing crises in many countries are: the economic downturn caused by high inflation; the energy crisis caused by high fuel and energy prices and low levels of energy self-sufficiency and underdevelopment of renewable energy sources; the climate crisis (and in some countries also the food crisis), the consequences of which include severe heat and droughts causing a decline in the production of agricultural crops, increased energy consumption and other negative effects. The climate crisis is likely to develop for many more years. In some countries, due to the low level of energy self-sufficiency, the low level of development of renewable and carbon-free energy sources, the scale of the currently developing energy crisis is greater and in the future, the negative effects of the climate crisis may also be more severe for nature and humans. Accordingly, local government units are also inspiring citizens to use water sparingly, save energy, segregate waste and other pro-environmental daily practices and actions. However, there are big differences in this regard when comparing environmental and pro-environmental policies and realistically carried out pro-environmental activities and green projects by individual local government units.

In view of the above, I address the following research question to the esteemed community of researchers and scientists:

How do local government units, including municipalities, within the framework of their pro-environmental and pro-climate policies, inspire citizens to save electricity and/or heat, conserve water, segregate waste and other pro-environmental daily practices and actions?

Please answer,

I invite everyone to join the discussion,

Thank you very much,

Best regards,

Dariusz Prokopowicz