Individual action on climate change

A demonstrator taking action through climate activism at the People's Climate March (2017) in Washington, D.C.

Individual action on climate change is about personal choices that everyone can make to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their lifestyles. Such personal choices are related to the way people travel, their diet, shopping habits, consumption of goods and services, number of children they have and so on. Individuals can also get active in local and political advocacy work around climate action. People who wish to reduce their carbon footprint (particularly those in high income countries with high consumption lifestyles), can for example reduce their air travel for holidays, use bicycles instead of cars on a daily basis, eat a plant-based diet, and use consumer products for longer.[1] Avoiding meat and dairy products has been called "the single biggest way" how individuals can reduce their environmental impacts.[2]

With regards to family size, excessive consumption may in fact be more to blame for greenhouse gas emissions and climate change than population increase. This is because high consumption lifestyles have a greater environmental impact, with the richest 10% of people emitting about half the total lifestyle emissions.[3][4]

Some commentators say that actions taken by individual consumers, such as adopting a sustainable lifestyle, are insignificant compared to actions on the political level.[5] Others say that individual action does lead to collective action because "lifestyle change can build momentum for systemic change."[6][7]

  1. ^ "Six key lifestyle changes can help avert the climate crisis, study finds". the Guardian. 2022-03-07. Retrieved 2022-03-07.
  2. ^ Carrington, Damian (31 May 2018). "Avoiding meat and dairy is 'single biggest way' to reduce your impact on Earth". The Guardian. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Emissions inequality—a gulf between global rich and poor – Nicholas Beuret". Social Europe. 2019-04-10. Archived from the original on 2019-10-26. Retrieved 2019-10-26.
  4. ^ Westlake, Steve (11 April 2019). "Climate change: yes, your individual action does make a difference". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 2019-12-18. Retrieved 2019-12-09.
  5. ^ Lukacs, Martin (July 17, 2017). "Neoliberalism has conned us into fighting climate change as individuals". The Guardian. Archived from the original on November 6, 2019. Retrieved July 13, 2019.
  6. ^ Sparkman, Leor Hackel, Gregg (2018-10-26). "Actually, Your Personal Choices Do Make a Difference in Climate Change". Slate Magazine. Archived from the original on 2019-11-06. Retrieved 2019-07-23.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  7. ^ Vesely, Stepan; Masson, Torsten; Chokrai, Parissa; Becker, Anna M.; Fritsche, Immo; Klöckner, Christian A.; Tiberio, Lorenza; Carrus, Giuseppe; Panno, Angelo (2021). "Climate change action as a project of identity: Eight meta-analyses". Global Environmental Change. 70: 102322. Bibcode:2021GEC....7002322V. doi:10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2021.102322. hdl:11590/396483.