Social Tipping Dynamics: An Imperative for Mission LIFE

 

The clarion call of Mission Life by the Honorable Prime Minister of India imbibes Social Tipping Dynamics within the multicultural context of India. This is because Mission LIFE focuses on a social movement to – save energy, save water, adopt sustainable food systems, reduce waste, adopt healthy lifestyles, and reduce e-waste. The core principle of Mission LIFE is to create a mass movement to reduce mindless, destructive material, resource, and energy consumption to make people more pro-planet against the backdrop of ongoing human-induced climate change. This is more pertinent as climate change is already leading to disasters like floods, drought, and heatwaves posing humanity towards a journey of mass extinction along with the species on the Earth. 

Societies for the cause of the conservation of the planet for the future can only be mobilized through a sense of reflection within human beings by being role models and examples by themselves. When there is a change in the inner consciousness of humans across the world, it is expected that societies will also change accordingly. Such a change will thereafter be useful in impacting the behavior of people towards saving energy, and water and will facilitate to protection of the planet for the future.

Hence, this change in the behavior of the people will gradually lead to a tipping in society, leading to a mass movement for saving energy and the planet for the future. Therefore, if Mission LIFE of India has to be successful and contribute to a net zero economy goal by 2070, social tipping has to set in. Only when the social tipping will set in, people through a mass mobilization movement will start saving energy, and water. As the social tipping sets in people will start enhancing renewable energy usage and reducing energy demand through demand management measures using behavioral changes and action. This growth in the usage of renewables through social tipping has already been observed in various other countries in the recent past.

Global literature shows that the fast growth in renewables has led to an economic tipping point for adopting renewables. However, a corresponding reduction in fossil fuel demand and a system-wide energy transition have not happened. This is because social tipping dynamics have still not set in to move away an energy system completely from fossil fuel-based energy systems to renewable energy-based systems at a global, national, and regional level.

Various actors, tactics by different actors, and a range of conflicts have acted as a hindering factor in enabling this shift from fossil fuel-based systems to renewable energy-based systems of the future.  Tactics are often being applied by international, national, regional, and local pressure, and interest groups to hinder such shifts. However, no clear relationship exists between the tactics of pressure and interest groups and the actual shifts, and transitions. In carbon-intensive regions of Europe, it is observed that the role of national institutions, and responses to global and international pressure groups have determined the shifts from fossil fuel-based systems to renewable energy ones. Often, the shifts in the systems following social tipping dynamics work like a chaotic pattern of a natural ecosystem with multiple forces being at play to determine a shift or transition catalyzed by social tipping dynamics. Just like an Ecological System, in such a situation, small changes finally create big impacts in society when it comes to shifts from fossil fuel to renewable energy systems.

If Mission Life has to contribute to the net zero goal of the future, it has to be cognizant of these small nudges within society. These nudges are also going to be impacted by Public Policy leading to changes in people’s choices, behavior, and actions. Evidence of this lies in the fact that in Germany, as strong public policy and industry support got aligned with a decrease in the support of nuclear energy, the nudge worked, and solar energy sector started to grow with a shift in choices of people to solar energy taking them away from nuclear sources of energy. Gradually, when the demand picks up through these nudges, the costs of clean energy transition will also go down in the long run by reducing the upfront costs of solar installations.

This will therefore enhance the clean energy transition through a social tipping with a spiralling effect within the society in the future. Once, such a transition takes off, people’s conviction and belief in the clean energy systems go up further strengthening their future action for clean energy choices and adoption. This phenomenon has been observed in the case of the transition to electric vehicles, and electrification of heating and cooling systems in residential areas of developed societies. However, it needs to be tested for developing societies with multiple cultural layers like India.  This is because, in a developing country like India, subsidies for fossil fuels, energy infrastructure subsidies, the higher gestation period of fossil fuel-based energy infrastructure, and multiple social lock-in effects can delay the effects of social tipping nudges and can hinder the transition to clean energy choices by people.  The behavior can also be impacted by International Crises like War which can impact people’s future preferences for energy choices and adoption. For example, in the winter of 2022-23, energy demand in Europe went down expecting future high prices due to the escalating war between Russia and Ukraine. Similarly, the energy demand of people across Europe and the World reduced during Covid 19 but again it rebounded back in 2021 at a level which was similar to the energy demand levels of 2019. Hence, the impact of social tipping dynamics as a nudge and its impact on energy choices, actions, and behavior of people are often impacted by a global, international crisis like a War, Terrorism, Public Health Crisis, or Natural Disasters. The role of MISSION LIFE as a contributory nudge to attain a net zero economy by 2070 through social tipping dynamics will therefore also be dependent on these extraneous shocks and crisis events whenever they happen.

For a multicultural, federal, country with a wide variety of political economies between the center and states in India such nudges can get more and more complicated in the national and state contexts of India. It will therefore need a transdisciplinary lens of Social Tipping Dynamics to understand where MISSION LIFE of India can or might reach in the future in terms of its contribution towards the net zero goal of 2070 of the Indian Economy without compromising India’s developmental, quality of life goals and aspirations for the future with a sense of equity and justice for all sections of the society.