Reduce
Sources
As an individual, the main areas where you can instantly impact your own carbon footprint in a substantial way are linked to your diet, home, travelling and shopping/consumption habits. It is also crucial that we support a system change, why we have also included this below.
Diet
Becoming more vegetarian
Climate change is awful, and the meat industry is a major cause of climate change - bigger than the entire transport sector. The average carbon footprint is 3-18 tons per person per year. For the world to stay habitable we need to reduce it to about 2 tons per person. That’s a very big change! Reducing or eliminating meat from your diet can reduce your footprint by about 1 ton per year, so it’s a good start.
Home
What is the climate impact?
“Regular” energy in the EU emits 295,8 g CO2 per kWh, in the US it is 452,8 g. However, renewable energy emits only 10-20 g CO2 per kWh, depending on the source.
A 3-4 bedroom home in the UK uses on average 3100 kWh of electricity per year. If the source is regular grid electricity, the CO2 emissions are 723 kg. If renewable energy is used, the emissions are only 47 kg!
If you also heat your home with electricity and can switch your electricity plan from regular to renewable energy, you can reduce the carbon footprint from 2 tonnes to 100 kg. That’s amazing!
Travelling
Emissions from different ways to travel
Emissions if you travel by:
Flight: 250 kg CO2e
Boat: 138 kg CO2e
Car (petrol): 223 kg CO2e
Car (diesel): 209 kg CO2e
Car (etanol): 74 kg CO2e
Car (gas): 214 kg CO2e
Hybrid Car: 126 kg CO2e
Electric Car: 73 kg CO2e
Bus: 127 kg CO2e
Train: 33 kg CO2e
Subway: 6 kg CO2e
Distance of trip in 1000 km.
You can easily see that climate emissions from flying and petrol and diesel cars are much higher than going on the same trip by train or an electric car. The difference between flying and train is huge when you start thinking about it.
Consumption / shopping
The carbon footprint of shopping
One share of our emissions comes from the category broadly defined as “shopping”. This is an area where we spend much of our energy thinking about how we can be climate or environment friendly. Perhaps this is because it feels like we can control it, and how we spend (or not spend) our money defines our identity to some extent.
Where does your money go? This is not directly proportional to our emissions, but an indication of where your emissions come from. Also, the wealthier we are, the higher emissions we have. When looking at our bills and bank statements, we get proof of our consumption behaviour. It is possible to estimate emissions based on the money spent, however, often what is best for the climate is to make one sustainable purchase and stick to it, rather than cheaper ones which need replacement. So a long-lasting investment looks like it has high emissions, even though it balances up over time.
System change
Signing petitions for the climate
Supporting different causes by signing petitions can be a very powerful and easy way of creating change. We have collected active petitions in different areas of the world – browse our suggestions below and get ready to make a difference!
Europe
– Bundesbank, don’t stand against climate action! (350.org)
– Sign and demand the EU and EU governments withdraw from the ECT (EU) (TNI.org)
– Stop big polluters from suing our governments (Wemove.eu)
Global
– Raise your voice for Climate Justice – (Greenpeace International)
– Stop plastic pollution (WWF)
– Save the wild coast! (Greenpeace)
– Bring justice to the Amazon (Avaaz)
– Support Kichwa communities’ appeal for justice (Amazon Frontlines)