“We can't be too saintly”: Why members of parliament in the United Kingdom are reluctant to lead by example with low-carbon behaviour

Abstract

Low-carbon behaviour change from individuals is both essential for meeting climate change targets and highly politically contentious. Shifting away from activities such as flying, driving and meat eating can greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, yet political leaders have avoided introducing policies to stimulate this for fear of alienating voters and confronting political orthodoxies. This article examines low-carbon behaviour change through the novel lens of individual leadership and leading by example. Applying threories of credibility enhancing displays (CREDs) and embodied leadership, we present evidence from 19 interviews with UK members of parliament (MPs), exploring how they think leading by example may affect their credibility as democratic representatives. We find that MPs believe leading by example is important as a general principle but is problematic when it comes to low-carbon behaviour. While some MPs do deliberately model sustainable behaviours to maintain credibility as climate advocates, they tend to do this quietly for fear of negative reactions from the media, political rivals, and constituents. MPs say modelling low-carbon behaviour may be perceived as a threat to individual freedoms, such as flying for holidays, and risks disapproval from local business interests related to high-carbon activities, such as car manufactures or the airline industry. Even pro-climate MPs tend to frame low-carbon behaviour as “extreme”, and position themselves in contrast to this extreme, thus perpetuating social and moral norms of high-carbon behaviour. We discuss how individual politicians form part of a systemic resistance to low-carbon behaviour change.