Culturally adapted behavioral interventions for promoting residential energy conservation in the Baltic Sea region (ECiLES)

Despite numerous calls for action and policy efforts by international organizations, the public response to the global climate crisis has been insufficient and varies greatly between countries and cultures, as is apparent in the Baltic Sea region. Research into behavioral interventions to promote sustainable energy consumption and climate change mitigation strategies has thus far largely ignored cultural differences. By using interdisciplinary knowledge from economics, sociology, and psychology, drawn from the western and eastern shores of the Baltic, this project will determine how effective culturally adapted interventions are in the Baltic Sea region and assess how the public response to energy conservation interventions differs in three countries – Lithuania, Estonia, and Sweden. For the three-year period, the project will implement three work packages: 1) assessment of the current residential energy saving policies in the Baltic Sea countries; 2) designing effective culturally adapted behavioral interventions for a sample of three Baltic Sea countries; 3) assessment of the longitudinal effects of pro-social norms triggering behavioral interventions concerning residential energy conservation in Lithuania and Sweden. The project’s final report, which will summarize the findings of the project as a whole, will provide Baltic Sea climate policy stakeholders with effective, culturally adapted tools to facilitate the achievement of energy security and climate goals.

Publications

• Kažukauskas, A. (2025) Energy efficiency in residential use in the EU. Chapter in: Encyclopedia of Energy, Natural Resource, and Environmental Economics, Elsevier, 2025, 2.External link
• Kažukauskas, A., Asmare, F., Broberg, T., & Jaraitė, J. (2025). The Spillover Effects of Real-Time Social Comparison Information on Water and Energy Use: Experimental Evidence Using In-Home Displays. Environmental and Resource Economics, 1-26.External link
• Faber, H., Giolo, A., Kasperski, T., Kažukauskas, A., Marklund, J., Olsson, A., ... & Tarasova, E. (2025). Addressing the Energy Trilemma in the Baltic Sea Region and Eastern Europe. Baltic Worlds, 18(1), 119-122.External link