Climate change is undoubtedly a challenge with deep - and increasingly complex - behavioural roots. High profile efforts are already underway in Canada through federal levers, like the carbon tax, energy efficiency regulations, and investments in clean technology, that further the Government of Canada's goals for decarbonization, electrification, energy-efficiency, and nature-based solutions. An additional tool to contribute to these efforts is evidenced-based, data-driven behavioural science (BeSci), which can enhance our understanding of what drives individual and organizational behaviour, what barriers stand in the way of greater climate action, and how to design and test scalable solutions that lead to meaningful behaviour change.

The Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU) in the Government of Canada has developed the Program of Applied Research on Climate Action (PARCA) that will utilize BeSci to identify, design, and test solutions to promote climate action in Canada. The program of research, implemented in full partnership with two federal departments (Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada), will lead to evidence and a series of recommendations to scale effective approaches and solutions in promoting climate action in the policy, program, regulatory, and communication domains.

The three phases of PARCA will include:

1) Scoping & Longitudinal Data Collection: behaviour-based problems are defined, data and evidence from existing departmental programs in priority areas are analysed, and existing literature within these priority areas is reviewed and synthesized. At the same time, an eight wave longitudinal study (public opinion research) will be initiated to will be initiated to gather data and generate evidence on the behaviours and perceptions of Canadians as they evolve over time.

2) Online Studies & Experiments: the evidence and insights generated from Phase 1 will inform a series of rapid online studies and experiments to help further understand drivers and barriers to behaviour change. They will also test potential solutions on large, randomized samples of Canadians to address the drivers and barriers before scaling.

3) In-Field Testing & Experiments: a series of in-field studies to test research findings in the real world will be launched in collaboration with trusted partners. In-field testing and research will help uncover the true, unbiased perceptions that can hinder the adoption of climate actions amongst Canadians with the findings feeding directly into decision-making processes.

Finally, some of the initial behavioural challenges being studied under PARCA include:
- Nature and biodiversity conservation
- Plastics waste and advancing the circular economy
- Products purchased for household consumption that are harmful to the environment and human health
- Home energy-efficiency evaluations and retrofits
- Uptake of zero-emission vehicles
- Designing and testing targeted communications to support these challenges (and more)