Leveraging Agency for Climate Change Mitigation
Abstract
Climate discourse often pits individual behaviour against systemic change, reinforcing a false binary that obscures key leverage points for mitigation. This Comment introduces the agency frame (a-frame), a strategic framework that reconceptualizes behaviour as embedded in, and constitutive of, systems. Rather than focusing narrowly on consumer actions or relying solely on structural interventions, the a-frame highlights how individuals, acting within roles such as citizen, professional, investor, consumer, and role model, can influence institutions, norms, and infrastructure. We propose three priorities for behaviourally informed intervention design: (1) map behaviour by social role and institutional leverage; (2) prioritize high-impact, high-agency behaviours; and (3) map and expand agency by targeting those with the greatest influence and increasing agency for those who are constrained. This approach equips behavioural researchers and policymakers with a practical, equity-informed lens to design more impactful, context-sensitive interventions, clarifying how role-based agency can serve as a bridge between individual action and structural transformation.
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