Individual action on climate change

[4] Avoiding meat and dairy products has been called "the single biggest way" individuals can reduce their environmental impacts.

[9][10] As of 2021[update] the remaining carbon budget for a 50-50 chance of staying below 1.5 degrees of warming is 460 bn tonnes of CO2 or 11+1⁄2 years at 2020 emission rates.

[17] To meet the Paris Agreement target of under 1.5 degrees warming by the end of the century, it is estimated that the annual carbon footprint per person required by 2030 is 2.3 tonnes.

[24] The IPCC Sixth Assessment Report pointed out in 2022: "To enhance well-being, people demand services and not primary energy and physical resources per se.

Focusing on demand for services and the different social and political roles people play broadens the participation in climate action.

[9][10]In 2008 the World Health Organization wrote that "Your 'carbon footprint' is a measure of the impact your activities have on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) produced through the burning of fossil fuels".

[30] A comparison of travel options shows: Walking and biking emit little to no greenhouse gases and are healthy alternatives to driving or riding public transportation.

[39] These environmental impacts can be measured in greenhouse gas emissions, solid waste produced, and consumption of energy resources among other factors.

Grass lawns that live over the winter but die back above ground can also soak up a share of carbon dioxide, reducing that greenhouse gas in the atmosphere.

Individuals can also prioritize discontinuing the use of those goods and services that offer little to no real utility by "speaking with their money", since unpopular products neither satisfy consumer wants/needs nor the environment's; however, government subsidies may prove "boycott buying" to be futile in some cases, enabling the producer.

[100] If this is correct, it would mean that just the food aspect of daily life would nearly exhaust the entire Paris Agreement compliance goal of 2.3 tons [101] per person per year.

Therefore, reducing food loss[102] is absolutely essential, and in the 2020 Project Drawdown, it was identified as the top priority solution to address climate change.

[111][112][113][114] The world's food system is responsible for about one-quarter of the planet-warming greenhouse gases that humans generate each year[115] with the livestock sector alone contributing 14.5% of all anthropogenic GHG emissions.

[119] A diet which is part of individual action on climate change is also good for health, averaging less than 15 g (about half an ounce) of red meat and 250 g dairy (about one glass of milk) per day.

"[122] Meats such as beef have a higher climate impact since cows release methane, a greenhouse gas that is more harmful in the short-term than carbon dioxide.

[124] A 2018 study indicated that one fifth of Americans are responsible for about half of the country's diet-related carbon emissions, due mostly to eating high levels of meat, especially beef.

In addition to mitigating climate change, other benefits of this transition would include improved water quality, restoration of biodiversity, and reductions in air pollution.

Farm-level emissions include both organic (manure management) and synthetic fertilizer applications, as well as ruminant enteric fermentation methane production.

[140] While glass bottles and aluminum cans are recyclable, the packaging that holds them together, such as six-pack rings , is a significant source of plastic pollution and carbon dioxide emissions.

[164] This is mainly due to the large amount of carbon dioxide emitted by the distillation process, which is further exacerbated by the temperature and humidity control in warehouses where barrels of whiskey and other spirits are aged for long periods.

[170] Although having fewer children is perhaps the individual action that most effectively reduces a person's climate impact, the issue is rarely raised, and it is arguably controversial due to its private nature.

[186] However the "per person carbon footprint" of individual people is likely to reduce over time due to efforts to decarbonize our economies and reach net zero emissions in the future.

Impactful ways in the area of political advocacy that an individual can take include:[196] individual citizen participation in groups advocating for collective action in the form of political solutions, such as carbon pricing, meat pricing,[197] ending subsidies for fossil fuels[198] and animal husbandry,[199] and ending laws encouraging car use.

[202] Some believe that some of the long-term negative effects of climate change can be ameliorated through individual and community actions to reduce resource consumption.

[203][204] To raise awareness of climate issues, activists organized a series of international labor and school strikes in late September 2019,[205] with estimates of total participants ranging between 6 and 7.3 million.

[209][210] A 2023 review study published in One Earth stated that opinion polls show that most people perceive climate change as occurring now and close by.

For instance, popular suggestions for individual actions include replacing a typical car with a hybrid, washing clothes in cold water, recycling, upgrading light bulbs which are all regarded as lower impact behaviors.

[227] Other researchers say that decarbonization need not mean a more austere lifestyle, and that the individual actions with the most impact are to electrify households, with for example electric cars and heating.

Moreover, policy measures such as targeted subsidies, eco-tariffs, effective sustainability certificates, legal product information requirements, CO2 pricing,[229] emissions allowances rationing,[230][231] budget-allocations/labelling,[230] targeted product-range exclusions, advertising bans, and feedback mechanisms are examples of measures that could have a more substantial positive impact on consumption behavior than changes exclusively carried out by consumers and could address social issues such as consumers' inhibitive constraints of budgets, awareness and time.

[242] Climate change education, which became mandatory in Italy in 2019,[243] is completely absent in some countries, or fails to provide information on action that individuals can take.

A demonstrator taking action through climate activism at the People's Climate March (2017) in Washington, D.C.
Scaling the effect of wealth to the national level: richer (developed) countries emit more CO 2 per person than poorer (developing) countries. [ 13 ] Emissions are roughly proportional to GDP per person, though the rate of increase diminishes with average GDP/pp of about $10,000.
A vast majority of people surveyed for the European Investment Bank Climate Survey say they are making efforts to reduce their contribution to climate change, but few are making radical lifestyle changes.
Battery electric bus
Solar panels on roof of a home to generate energy from a renewable energy source
Survey showing that heating, air conditioning and daily mobility are the areas where people believe their individual actions can have the greatest impact on reducing their carbon footprint [ 64 ]
European and American respondents to a survey in 2022 are found the most willing to change heating and cooling habits, while Chinese people are more willing to change everyday mobility habits. [ 64 ]
Example of a low-carbon dish : Vegan pho ingredients
Kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (kgCO₂eq) per kilogram of each food. Quoted from Our World In Data [ 131 ]
Equivalent carbon dioxide emissions per unit of protein content from foods commonly considered to be protein sources. The height of the curve indicates the distribution of producers that emit that particular amount of equivalent carbon dioxide. Quoted from Our World In Data [ 132 ]
Country breakdown for people responding to the question "Do you think your own behavior can make a difference in tackling climate change?"
Degree of concern about the effects of climate change vary with political affiliation in the United States: Voters of the Democratic Party worry more about climate change than voters of the Republican party . [ 201 ]
Respondents to a climate survey about reducing their home temperature to 19°C or less (from various countries)
Graph of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration, at the People's Climate March , in Washington DC on 29 April 2017
A growing number of Europeans and Chinese respondents to a climate survey believe that their behavior can make a difference in tackling climate change. [ 224 ]