Increasing the acceptability of climate neutrality in society

Abstract

Climate change is seen as a matter of urgently needed decisions and broad public involvement. A climate- neutral society is what the European Union and other developed countries are striving for. At first glance, most members of societies in these countries support or tend to support the idea of climate neutrality. The latter idea can be reached by proper sorting of waste, its further use thus meeting the principles of circular economy, conversion of waste that cannot be re-used into energy, energy saving, responsible and sufficient consumption, and similar actions. However, the trend when members of society are reluctant to engage, proactively and to a large extent, in the pursuit of a climate-neutral idea is common to many countries. Research shows that quite often proactive involvement is hampered by a lack of understanding of this idea and a lack of conscious acceptance. Modern marketing supports storytelling. Therefore, it is a way to educate, provide knowledge, understanding, acceptance, and share the same idea of being climate-neutral with other members of society. This could increase the acceptability of the idea and facilitate its dissemination at a later time. However, there is a lack of scientific evidence to state this as there is not much research in this area, especially in the field of energy. Therefore, the aim of the study is to determine the important issues in increasing the acceptability of a climate-neutral society through storytelling. The approach of qualitative research was chosen to achieve the aim. This was due to the desire to display, in various ways, the phenomenon as such, the potential links between the phenomenon and other variables studied, and to formulate insights and further research directions. An analysis of the results of the study suggests that storytelling could be effective in increasing the acceptability of climate neutrality in society. With the help of storytelling, the acceptance of ideas of climate neutrality can be effectively raised by employing positive emotions, empathy, and certain determined values. Storytelling is a way to establish long-term positive attitudes toward the ideas of a climate-neutral society, as it is much easier to overcome mistrust, provide knowledge and convey a key message. Research has also shown that the use of storytelling can be a more effective tool than conventional informational or action-promoting advertising. This leads to the assumption that it is reasonable to expect that storytelling can both increase the acceptability of a climate-neutral society and ensure that this effect will be long-lasting.