The core problem is to alter people's behavior. There's a lot of research out there on what works or does not work to alter people's behavior. Among the least effective (sadly) are ordinary educational efforts. Learning, lectures, reading -- these don't generally alter behavior. People do respond, however, to incentives, especially with ongoing monitoring/reporting of results.
Changing people's behavior through "incentives" you think? But why? Where is the evidence this changes people's behavior on a Mass Scale?
There's a large body of research available on what works to prompt behavior change. Here's a start as to how this research applies to environmentally responsible behavior change:
Information, Incentives, and Proenvironmental Consumer Behaviorhttps://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1006211709570http://sci-hub.tw/10.1023/a:1006211709570". . .There are several strategies available for changing environmentally
significant consumer behavior. Policies may seek to alter behavior
by offering new and beneficial technology, changing financial and
other material incentives, changing attitudes and beliefs with education
and information, appealing to basic values, or modifying
institutional structures that may range from international agreements
down to community-level norms and neighborhood organizations.
There is evidence that each of these kinds of intervention can make
a difference under the right conditions and, perhaps more impor-
tantly, that large opportunities are missed by failing to combine the
strengths of different approaches (Gardner & Stern, 1996). The effects
of various kinds of intervention interact. I will illustrate here by
focusing on only two of the major intervention strategies: providing
information about the beneficial effects to the consumer of behavioral
changes, and offering material incentives for behavioral change.
Before examining the evidence, however, it is useful to have a conceptual
framework into which to assimilate it. . ."
As I've suggested, information and education plays an important role. Such efforts can potentially permit needed political change. This, combined with incentives, can interact to alter individual behavior on a wide scale.