There was much discussion during the recent COP26 Climate Change Conference about actions governments need to take to reduce global warming in accordance with the Paris Agreement. Similarly, reports of corporate emissions attract discourse about how much companies are to blame for greenhouse gas emissions. Unfortunately, insufficient attention gets paid to reducing the underlying demand created by people for the activities that lead to those emissions. Unfortunate because 65% of global emissions are directly or indirectly linked to household consumption, so there is a huge opportunity to mitigate climate change that remains underexploited.
There is widespread concern about climate change and the vast majority of people are willing to make personal changes. But the pervasiveness of greenhouse gas emissions in our lives (figure below) and large volume of research into mitigation options can make it feel daunting to prioritize specific actions.
Global greenhouse gas emissions by sector (2016). Source: Our World in Data.
In this blog, I am sharing an infographic and podcast (below) that I prepared for one of my master’s courses. They were based on a research paper that consolidated the findings of 53 different peer reviewed studies of household consumption habits. A significant majority of household-linked emissions can be abated with existing technology and different consumption choices – a promising and empowering finding in a space that often feels lacking for tangible action. The studies encompassed wide geographic and economic ranges, so specific circumstances will vary depending on where you live and your current lifestyle. But the study provides some clear and necessary direction toward understanding which changes we can implement that will make a significant difference.
I distilled their findings down to six key options that can provide most of the reduction in emissions linked to household consumption needed by 2030 to put us on a trajectory to limit global warming to 1.5°C:
electric vehicles,
reducing air travel,
renewable electricity,
reducing home heat loss,
installing a heat pump, and
a plant-based diet.
To this list, I will add a seventh related item: changing social norms. While the above six actions are important at the individual household level, widespread change throughout our societies will be required to mitigate global warming. By demonstrating desired behaviours to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, we also make an arguably more important contribution by influencing what others in our communities consider to be normal and acceptable behaviour.
