Could a behavioural change campaign save energy and cut Russian gas imports?

A call for collective action could help UK pivot away from dependence on Russian fossil fuels

There is a second world war poster showing a red-faced couple looking angrily at their daughter as she adds more fuel to their fire. The caption reads: Save fuel to make munitions for battle."

It was one of a series of public campaigning posters aimed at driving a collective response to the need to save energy for the war effort. The message was clear: stop using so much fuel, because it is needed for the fighting troops.

Turn down the thermostat on your boiler by 1C. If everyone in the UK did this, it would reduce their energy demand by 10%. Energy bills would be cut by 670m, while saving 3.5m tonnes of CO2 a year, according to the Energy Savings Trust.

Set your heating to come on only when required. This is estimated to help reduce a household's electricity use by 2.8% and gas use by 2% (Energy Savings Trust).

Set thermostats no higher than 19C and the water temperature in heating systems no higher than 55C, says the Committee on Climate Change.

Keep your shower time to four minutes. This could save a typical household 950kWh of energy and 195kg of carbon emissions a year; equivalent to driving 700 miles from Birmingham to Aberdeen and back again (Energy Savings Trust).

Turning lights off when leaving a room will save you around 70kWh of energy and 17kg of carbon annually - the equivalent to driving 61 miles from London to Canterbury (Energy Savings Trust).

Insulate your home. A fully insulated home is 50% more energy efficient than a property that has no insulation, according to Eyre.

Cut domestic energy demand by introducing a four-day week and encouraging more working from home, says the Centre for Research into Energy Demand Solutions.

Speed up the replacement of gas boilers with heat pumps. After the failure of the Green Homes Grant, the government will launch its replacement on 1 April 2022. The boiler upgrade scheme will offer a 5,000 grant to replace gas boilers with air-sourced heat pumps. Switching from a typical gas heating system to an air-source heat pump could save about 9,200 kWh a year (Energy Savings Trust).

Increase the use of renewables, which are now the cheapest form of energy production on the market. 649 solar and windfarms already have planning permission; if they went ahead they would save more gas than currently imported by the UK from Russia, according to Carbon Brief.

Replace fossil-fuelled cars with electric ones. A fully electric vehicle could save 2 tonnes of CO2 a year and help end dependence on fossil fuel (CCC).