GIECO, to better understand our behaviour in the face of the climate emergency

Scientists and experts are unanimous: knowledge about climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution is widely available and understood by a large part of the population, yet society is not changing enough or fast enough. How can this paradox be explained? What is holding us back, almost in spite of ourselves? How can we encourage the adoption of more sustainable lifestyles and accelerate collective action in favour of the environment?

These are the findings and questions raised in the first report by GIECO (International Group of Experts on Behavioural Change), published this summer*.

An international collective of more than 200 scientists, GIECO, founded in 2020, takes a systemic and interdisciplinary approach to exploring the drivers of behavioural change and non-change in the face of urgent ecological crises. Aiming to better understand what prevents – or, conversely, encourages – changes in our behaviour, GIECO's work analyses the complexity of the human factor across its many dimensions, including irrational, emotional, cultural and unconscious ones. 

However, the report does not merely compile current knowledge on the subject; its aim is to formulate concrete recommendations for collective action, governance, regulation and citizen mobilisation.

Among the avenues identified for removing obstacles at all levels of society (individual, collective, cultural, organisational, etc.), the development of new ‘positive’ societal norms for individuals and the environment they are part of particularly echoes the missions of the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation's Green Shift initiative, which aims to promote the emergence of inspiring narratives to imagine futures that are both sustainable and desirable. 

The first GIECO report is the result of three years of work by 40 researchers from 35 universities, 14 disciplines and 20 countries.

*Report available in English, summary in French planned for October 2025.  

More info here