Climate change is a global externality that has proven difficult to address through formal institutions alone due to the public good properties of climate change mitigation and the lack of a supranational institution for enforcing global treaties. Given these circumstances, which are arguably the most challenging for international cooperation, commitment problems and free-riding incentives for countries to delay costly mitigation efforts are major obstacles to effective environmental agreements. Starting from this premise, we examine domestic mitigation efforts, with the goal of assessing the extent to which the willingness of individuals to contribute voluntarily to the public good of climate mitigation could be scaled up to the global level. Although individual environmental actions are clearly insufficient for achieving ambitious global mitigation targets, we argue that they are nevertheless initial and essential steps in the right direction. In fact, individual and community efforts may be particularly important if local interventions encourage shifts in norms and behaviors that favor large-scale transformations. With this in mind, we discuss the importance of the visibility of norms and the role of beliefs when such visibility is lacking and their implications for leveraging cooperative behavior to increase climate mitigation efforts locally and globally.

中文翻译：

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气候共同体中的合作

气候变化是一种全球外部性，事实证明，由于缓解气候变化的公共利益以及缺乏执行全球条约的超国家机构，仅凭正规机构就难以应对。鉴于这些情况可能是国际合作中最具挑战性的情况，承诺问题和对各国推迟昂贵的减缓努力的搭便车激励措施是有效环境协定的主要障碍。从这一前提出发，我们研究了国内减缓努力，其目的是评估个人自愿为气候减缓的公益事业做出贡献的意愿可以扩大到全球范围的程度。尽管单独的环境行动显然不足以实现雄心勃勃的全球减排目标，但我们认为，这仍然是朝着正确方向迈出的第一步和必不可少的步骤。实际上，如果地方干预鼓励有利于大规模变革的规范和行为的转变，那么个人和社区的努力就可能特别重要。考虑到这一点，我们讨论了规范可见性的重要性以及缺乏可见性时信念的作用，以及它们对利用合作行为在本地和全球范围内增加减缓气候变化工作的影响。如果地方干预措施鼓励有利于大规模变革的规范和行为的转变，个人和社区的努力可能就显得尤为重要。考虑到这一点，我们讨论了规范可见性的重要性以及缺乏可见性时信念的作用，以及它们对利用合作行为在本地和全球范围内增加减缓气候变化工作的影响。如果地方干预措施鼓励有利于大规模变革的规范和行为的转变，个人和社区的努力可能就显得尤为重要。考虑到这一点，我们讨论了规范可见性的重要性以及缺乏可见性时信念的作用，以及它们对利用合作行为在本地和全球范围内增加减缓气候变化工作的影响。