YOU are the solution to climate change — but not in the way you imagine
Individual people can’t solve climate change, politicians and businesses need to deal with it. It doesn’t matter what happens in small countries like Finland: places like China and India are the ones that count. Sounds familiar? Do you feel that the climate debate is stuck in a rut? We must cut emissions quickly, which is why we need a new perspective. What if you and me, that is, the consumers, are at the heart of the solution after all?
The striking truth is that 70% of all emissions are connected to private consumption. This means that every act of consumption is the culmination of a long chain of events causing emissions. At the beginning of this chain, raw material is collected for use and transported to a manufacturing plant, where it is processed and used for production. After this, the product is consumed, and finally disposed of.
The most important thing is to make these consumption chains more sustainable and eliminate anything unnecessary. We can all contribute to that goal with the choices we make. Am I talking about smart and environmentally friendly purchasing decisions here? Yes, what we buy and what we don’t buy is important.
This, however, is about a much greater transformational power. And as consumers, we are at the heart of it.
Current climate action is based on the idea that each country takes care of its own area. In other words, all countries are responsible for reducing the emissions that arise within their own borders and for managing the measures that bind greenhouse gases. However, the calculations remain incomplete, as not everything that is consumed for example in Finland is produced here. Emission chains rarely fit within a country’s geographical borders. At the moment, we only measure our own share of the whole — and, as a result, change remains limited.
For example, different industry sectors will only focus on emission reductions within their own sector. In other words, the meat industry reduces emissions arising from its own processes, while the automotive industry deals with its own emissions. Do these reductions taking place in silos encourage the different sectors to consider their impact on the world in a more in-depth manner, or even to question their current behaviour? Hardly.
Therefore, a new calculation method must be created to complement the traditional regional measurements. We need calculations that cover the entire chain of consumption with all emissions included. This will allow us to examine the big picture in a critical manner and generate new operational methods.
Here is a concrete example: the new calculation method shows that one third of the carbon footprint related to food consumption comes from meat, and one third from dairy products. Consequently, politicians can consider whether to allocate subsidies to meat and milk production, or whether to favour other types of food production with lower emissions. Or, when it’s revealed that the share of emissions from car traffic only continues to grow, rather than attempting to reduce carbon emissions from new car models, the automotive industry could start thinking about new ways of transporting people from one place to another. Perhaps fewer new cars and more emission-free transport services could be the answer?
In other words, consumers are at the heart of the solution but not solely responsible for the emissions stemming from their consumption. In the future, businesses, public authorities and politicians will no longer approach the issue by country. Instead, they will ask: how can we reduce the emissions generated by the food industry, by transport and by housing? And they will make their decisions based on this. When the overall picture is clear and concrete, we can design a roadmap for a more sustainable life.
Michael Lettenmeier
Michael Lettenmeier is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the NODUS Research Group on Sustainable Design at Aalto University, Department of Design. He is specialised in low-carbon lifestyles and is one of the head researchers of the 1.5 Degree Lifestyles research study commissioned by the Finnish Innovation Fund Sitra.
Read more about the new international report 1.5-degree lifestyles:
Visit today’s future at Aalto University Campus in Otaniemi, Finland. The Designs for a Cooler Planet exhibition presents a wide selection of experimental, climate-friendly products and individual choices that you make today. The exhibition is part of Helsinki Design Week and it will run until 4 October 2019.
