The effect of self-determined motivation on household energy consumption behaviour in a metropolitan area in southern China

• Published in: Energy efficiency Vol. 10; no. 3; pp. 549 - 561
• Main Authors: Cheung, Lewis T. O., Chow, Alice S. Y., Fok, Lincoln, Yu, Kar-Ming, Chou, Kee-Lee
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.06.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Behavior; Climate change; Climate change mitigation; Economics and Management; Energy; Energy consumption; Energy Efficiency; Energy Policy; Environment; Environmental Economics; Greenhouse effect; Greenhouse gases; Motivation; Original Article; Renewable and Green Energy; Residential energy; Sustainable Development; China; Energy-saving behaviour; Self-determined motivation; Household energy consumption; Hong Kong; Theory of planned action
• ISSN: 1570-646X; 1570-6478
• DOI: 10.1007/s12053-016-9472-5

Promoting pro-environmental behaviour among individuals could help to mitigate climate change. In this research, we tested the effect of self-determined motivation on pro-environmental behaviours related to household energy consumption. A questionnaire survey was conducted in Hong Kong ( n  = 1004) to examine the importance of self-determined motivation on pro-environmental behaviours that promote climate change mitigation. Our results indicated that incorporating self-determined motivation into a model of goal-directed behaviour (MGB) improved its predictive power and that both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of an individual were important predictors of pro-environmental energy consumption behaviour. The empirical results suggest measures that can be used by the government to motivate residents’ pro-environmental energy consumption behaviours and to achieve the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions for a metropolitan area in southern China.