In an October feature, the World Resources Institute (WRI) ranked 19 types of climate-friendly behavior by their potential to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. While governments and large corporations hold the levers to major emissions reductions (via energy systems, food, cities), WRI emphasizes that individuals also have a meaningful role by adjusting day-to-day behaviors.
While some more mainstream behavioral changes (e.g., recycling, buying local, decreasing food waste, etc.) have been shown to have smaller climate impacts than often assumed, there are fewer people that engage with the highest-impacting behaviors. The 19 behaviors analyzed in the WRI research, shows that shifting a few key behaviors can significantly reduce emissions and climate impacts. Some of these include, living car free, reducing or eliminating meat consumption, switching to an electric vehicle, and improving home energy efficiency and installing renewable energy (e.g., through rooftop solar panels and heat pumps).
The article highlights a major issue of emissions inequality: wealthier populations emit far more per capita and therefore have more room to reduce. Furthermore, the article stresses that accessibility matters where high-impact behaviors aren’t equally achievable by everyone everywhere. Achieving widespread change requires strong, coordinated action from governments, businesses, financial institutions, and industry leaders to make these behavioral shifts easy and accessible for everyone. The findings from the WRI research underscore the importance of prioritizing our efforts so that the more people who act on a few highly-impactful actions, the bigger the collective change will be. This means targeting these behaviors so that individual efforts work toward more effective climate solutions, especially when combined with collective civic action, such as voting, advocacy and demanding systemic change.
Written by Sabrina Careri, for Ann Dale.