RICRI Research Seminar: Climate Change, Energy Transition, and Human Behaviours

We present studies on the interaction between environment and human behaviours under climate change through three cases. First, escalating extreme weather events reshape human mobility patterns. Floods induce selective in-migration and out-migration conditional on socioeconomic status in the U.S., with substantial net annual income losses. Beyond climate shocks, longer-term transition from brown to green energy sources produces unintended environmental and socioeconomic consequences. Mass closure of coal-fired power plants in China displaces air pollution to nearby operating plants, generating a 1.7% increase in SO2 levels. Reducing inter-provincial trade barriers and promoting cleaner alternative energy sources could reduce net annual emissions by 3.7 to 5.6 times relative to the baseline scenario without these interventions. Last, we show that early-stage deployment of electric vehicle infrastructure in a smart city-state of Singapore generates unintended effects on household consumption through perceived housing wealth appreciation, increased nearby commercial activity, and trade-offs with petrol consumption. Drawing on evidence from developed and developing countries, we conclude by proposing a real-time, data-driven policy evaluation platform for building climate-resilient cities.