Dällenbach, NathalieNathalieDällenbach2023-04-132023-04-132021-09-20https://www.alexandria.unisg.ch/handle/20.500.14171/109905Moving beyond the status quo towards low-carbon energy and transportation systems is central to halting global climate change. From a technical point of view, numerous low-carbon solutions are available. However, a successful energy transition also hinges on community- and consumer-level decisions to adopt climate-friendly alternatives. As such, accelerating low-carbon transitions requires in-depth knowledge on how to foster social acceptance of renewable energy projects and low-carbon mobility behaviors. The findings of this dissertation highlight that gaining familiarity with sustainable alternatives and considering other behavioral factors such as emotions may be decisive in successfully implementing climate-friendly solutions. This overarching theme is explored in three different papers. Paper 1 focuses on community-level decisions, specifically on the social acceptance of wind energy projects. It investigates how and why wind turbine sound concerns arise and unfold during a wind projects planning phase. Results show that noise concerns travel much farther than actual wind turbine noise. Project leaders and policymakers should tend to those residents living closest to the wind turbine, as their concerns may be rationally founded, and to those unfamiliar with wind turbine sound, as they are prone to overestimating wind turbine impacts. Papers 2 and 3 focus on consumer-level decisions in the transportation sector. They provide insights into the psychological factors of long-distance travel mode choices between air travel and its low-carbon alternative train travel. Paper 2 shows that being familiar with train travel and highly valuing the productive use of travel time result in a higher likeliness of choosing train over air travel. The paper proposes two strategies to increase familiarity with train travel and suggests that railways' communication messages should emphasize the productive use of travel time. Paper 3 reveals that implicit affective associations are more strongly related to continental travel preferences (plane vs. train) than environmental attitudes. These results highlight that policy makers and business leaders should go beyond appealing to the public about the environmental impact of air travel and also consider the emotional dimension of travel mode choices.enNachhaltigkeitErneuerbare EnergienMobilitätReiseverhaltenSoziale AnerkennungEDIS-5099train travelair travelclimate changesocial acceptancerenewable energydoctoral thesis