I attended the inaugural meeting of the steering committee of the new International Panel on Behaviour Change (IPBC) at the U.N. in Paris in the last week of October.

The meeting was hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme and involved the 30 or so academics from across the globe appointed to the steering committee, as well as several key administrators from the U.N. and representatives of the IPCC and other relevant U.N. committees. The goal is to establish an organisation similar to the IPCC but focusing on behaviour, which will summarise the extant scientific literature on behaviour change relevant to sustainability, identify gaps in the literature as well as priorities moving forward, all under the auspices of the U.N. Going forward, and with a view to the first report,

I will lead on the working group/section on ‘perceptions and representations of climate change’ and also act as joint lead on the working group/section on ‘consumption’ with a member of the IPCC. The next meeting of the group is scheduled for the U.N. in Paris in February.