Air quality: key behaviours report

Executive Summary

Introduction

The Scottish Government's Cleaner Air for Scotland 2^[1] air quality strategy sets out an integrated framework for air quality improvement in Scotland. In the strategy, public engagement with air quality issues and behavioural changes across society are recognised to play an important part in future progress in this area. This report provides evidence on behavioural aspects of air quality issues, drawing on a rapid review of academic and grey literature, to help to inform future public engagement on air quality improvement.

The primary objective of the review was to identify the behaviours that have the most impact on improving air quality, discussed here as 'key behaviours'. The review also sought to identify factors influencing the uptake of the key behaviours. In doing so, we adopted the COM-B (Capabilities-Opportunity-Motivations-Behaviour) behaviour change model as a framework to classify factors influencing the key behaviours. This framework considers factors internal to the individual (individuals' Capabilities and Motivations) as well as those external to the individual which influence their Opportunity to act.

Key findings

The review highlighted that, of the large body of literature on air quality issues, very little frames air quality specifically in behavioural terms. We found no review papers evaluating the relative impacts of different behaviours across the spectrum of behaviours relevant to air quality. The review also highlighted the challenges in quantifying and comparing the impacts of different behaviours. As a result, we were not able to draw direct conclusions about the relative impact of different behaviours that would allow us to rank behaviours in order of importance. However, we were able to synthesise a set of eight behaviours – six key behaviours for air quality improvement, plus two additional behaviours. These two additional behaviours are those which the evidence suggests can impact on air quality but where the evidence base is less well developed or less persuasive in terms of impacts on air quality specifically. These key behaviours are shown in Table 1, with factors influencing each of the behaviours summarised in Table 2. Several of these behaviours align closely to those recommended in Transport Scotland's route map to reduce car use^[2].

The report also highlights other messages for policymakers in relation to behaviour change for air quality improvement:

• Public engagement strategies should be sensitive to the potential trade-offs between behavioural specificity and simplicity of messaging. High-level behaviours (such as reducing car use) convey simple messages for public communications, while focusing on more specific behaviours may be necessary when designing interventions.
• The framing of behaviour change in relation to air quality should take care to avoid transferring responsibility for change onto the individual. Public engagement strategies should acknowledge the role of actors across society in facilitating behaviour change.
• Public engagement through communication strategies is only one part of an integrated approach to behaviour change. Approaches are most likely to be successful where communications are supported by other interventions to create the social, environmental and economic conditions conducive to behaviour change.

Table 1: Key behaviours for air quality improvement

Six key behaviours for air quality improvement

Reducing car use

Walking, cycling or wheeling for short journeys

Using public transport instead of driving

Working flexibly or from home

Switching vehicle

Switching to an electric vehicle

Heating the home differently

Burning less at home

Ensuring good practice when burning fuel (including use of efficient appliances)

Additional behaviours to consider

Reducing car use

Using local shops and services

Driving differently

Using eco-driving techniques (including stopping engine when stationary)

Table 2: Capability, Opportunity and Motivation (COM) factors influencing behaviours. Only factors highlighted in the literature review are shown; it is likely there are additional factors also apply