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Welcome to my ‘Climate Citizen’ blog. Named after one of the groups that compromise a 3-way attitudinal model created as part of our analysis of the Environmental Choices™ 2008 data set.

What does it mean to be a ‘climate citizen’? From our 1st Environmental Choices™ report (1.a Attitudes (towards climate change)) the definition we provide is as follows:

‘As a prerequisite to being a Climate Citizen, you would believe that climate change is caused by human activity, that it is a serious threat and that we should focus on changing the way we do things now to tackle this. All Climate Citizens believe these things. There is some variability in how much climate change would impact the decisions you make in your life, and your personal interest in climate change – though, on average, it would be more than other groups.’

This group definition is in contrast to the 2 other attitudinal segmentations – ‘Mild Greens‘ & ‘Sceptics/Uninvolveds‘- who, as the naming suggests, meet different criteria along a sliding scale of attitudes regarding climate change. These 3 groups were created by applying statistical cluster analysis to answers given by nationally representative samples of over 1,000 American, English & Canadian respondents (over 3,000 in total) to a set of 5 questions regarding climate change. (For more information please download a free summary of the report from our website www.haddock-research.com or visit http://www.haddock-research.com/segmentation )

So, I regard myself as a ‘Climate Citizen‘. But, how does that impact on my lifestyle? Does it resonate in my life in the same way that it does other ‘Climate Citizens‘? Clearly the answer to this would be ‘no’ – how each individual’s relationship with climate change manifests itself will be tempered by their specific situation, desires, and aspirations. But, ‘Climate Citizens‘ do exhibit certain traits that can be utilised for the commercialisation & marketing of low carbon products or communication of low carbon propositions or policies. Some of which, and their ramifications, I will address in future blog posts. But for now our categorisation of ‘Climate Citizens‘, ‘Mild Greens‘ and ‘Sceptics/Uninvolveds‘ can be seen to be important for two reasons: firstly, it demonstrates the highly segmented relationship society has with climate change, and secondly, as a litmus test for any low carbon products or propositions or for any products that are to be marketed on their ‘green’ credentials.

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