5 tips: Easily reduce your climate footprint
If you eat vegetarian, can you fly more than if you eat meat? And how can you easily reduce your own climate impact? It’s no secret that the climate threat is an issue. As we emit more carbon dioxide, gases, and pollute the planet, the temperature rises, the ice melts, natural disasters, and many other consequences are the result. We humans need to turn it around before it’s too late and change our way of life to live more sustainable so that the next generation has a planet to live on.
First, a brief reminder: In the Paris Agreement, the world’s countries agreed that global warming must stay well below two degrees. Most preferably below 1.5 degrees. To achieve this, the world’s global carbon dioxide emissions must be halved every decade until we reach emissions of close to zero in 2050.
What needs to happen globally to withstand 1.5-degree warming by 2050?
To meet that goal, we must halve carbon dioxide emissions every decade until 2050 globally. And the goal then is to have global net emissions close to zero. But when we calculate it, we must until then also create negative emissions, that is, in different ways to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, because we need to compensate for the fact that some sectors of society have a huge challenge to get down to zero.
One such, for example, is the cement industry where you have to burn limestone to make cement, and then inevitably carbon dioxide enters the atmosphere. Therefore, you need to work on being able to collect and store carbon dioxide, remove it from the atmosphere or invest in forest planting and bioenergy in combination with carbon dioxide storage as compensation.
The main responsibility here lies, of course, with the politicians and what needs to be done broadly is that the energy sector globally must change from fossil fuels, that is, coal, oil, and natural gas, to alternative methods that do not release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. In concrete terms, we need to remove coal power, for example. But we also need to work with the transport sector: the vehicles used must be more efficient and climate-smart, the fuel must be changed to focus on electricity and biofuels and we must reduce the number of transport in general.
Then we must also change the global food sector to a climate-smart production. If we reduce meat production, the earth’s resources will last longer because less energy is needed to produce vegetarian products. However, there can still be meat production when, for example, natural beet meat is involved and contributes to biodiversity.
How likely are we to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement?
From a purely technical and economic point of view, there are good chances to do so and to have a good life on earth. The challenge we face is that we have never before had such a large, global change that will be solved in such a short time. The European Commission has calculated a net-zero target for the EU by 2050 and they can see that if we can do this we will have better GDP growth than if we continue with the fossil fuels, good economy, and good welfare. But then money must be invested now in order for us to be able to change.
Some highlight China and India as a cloud of concern in this as they are now moving forward strongly and to some extent increasing their emissions. However, the thing is that they have great opportunities to build green alternatives from the start, and in a way it is easier than for us in the Western world to have fully developed industrial systems and energy sectors that need to be completely redone.
It is important to remember, however, that nobody, not even us, works at the required rate. So we have to keep fighting.
What can be done at an individual level to reduce your climate footprint?
What affects your climate footprint are five different things:
1.Transportations
This includes both aircraft and cars that use fossil fuels. It also includes transportation of items that you buy but also travels. Simply put, we can say that we need to reduce both air travel and car travel, as well as transports from across the world – unless we find a more effective and climate-smart way to do so. Take the bike, go collectively, take the train instead of the flight if possible, or reduce the number of flights you make.
2. Housing
There is a lot of energy needed in your home. This also means that there are great opportunities for improvement and a reduction in your consumption to reduce your climate footprint. The primary sources of energy consumption are heating/cooling, lights, and machines, such as refrigerator, freezer, dishwasher, etc.
Save electricity with LED lamps and appliances with the best energy class. You can also seal windows and doors, lower the temperature at home and save on the hot water. If you have the opportunity, also produce your own solar energy on the roof at home.
3. Food
Food is a huge part of many peoples’ climate and carbon footprint.
The most important thing to do here is to reduce your meat consumption and reduce your food waste. Producing meat requires a lot of energy and cattle are the worst climate cure as they also emit a large amount of methane gases. Eat more vegetarian and once you eat meat choose good meat that has taken into account animal care, environment, and sustainability! A large part of the food produced does not reach your stomach and households account for most of the waste. By planning to buy better and not throw away edible food, the waste can be reduced. Furthermore, it is also important to buy locally-produced food in order to ensure minimal transportations.
4. Consumption
Humans overconsume to the extreme. Due to the cheap prices to buy items from the other side of the world, we often tend to buy them to a greater extent than ever before. Much of the things we consume are made in countries far, far away. This means that it is not only about the energy it takes to produce the items, but most importantly the transportations it takes to bring the products to market.
Everything that is produced requires energy and much of the emissions of fossil fuels happen when we produce goods to consume. If you can reduce your consumption or make climate-smart choices, it is good. Reduce your consumption as much as possible, and ask yourself whether you actually need it. And perhaps even if there is a locally-made alternative that you can buy?
5. The Exchange
This is not as easy but a tip is to ask your bank to report what climate impact your money has. The entire financial sector needs to work on reporting it and if you ask, they may begin to put in place measures on that front.
There is a lot of talk about staying on the ground and skipping the flight – but how much of a difference does it really make on the climate?
It depends on how you fly, the more hours you fly the greater the emissions – so it is the long flights that lead to the greatest emissions per trip. When compared, five one-hour journeys are better for the climate than a five-hour trip because long journeys produce an extra climatic effect called the high altitude effect. But in return, the startup that requires extra fuel is a major part of the journey if you fly many short trips. In addition, if there are short journeys you do, it is possible, for example, to explore the train traffic so that there is night trains to Europe. It is difficult today to take the train to Thailand and then it is better to forgo that trip and invest in something that is closer.
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