It’s been a terrible news year for climate change. We’re supposed to be making progress, but instead greenhouse gas emissions have increased by four per cent since the Paris accord was signed in 2015.
Even policy makers ran out of steam at the COP25 climate conference, where no forward steps were taken. Chema Vera, the interim executive director of Oxfam International, said: “The world is screaming out for action but this summit responded with a whisper.”
The sad fact is that many politicians don’t see decades of scientific research as sufficient motivation to act. “Clearly we have to put much greater pressure on our political leaders so they deliver on the outcomes that we need,” says Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the Climate and Energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
“We didn’t get here by accident; some really powerful and well-funded, fossil-fuel interests have created obstacles to climate action and we need to meet them with the same level of power,” she says. “What we have on our side is people power.”
Here are ten things you can do to help battle climate change, big and small. Ease yourself in with the smaller, manageable, everyday changes, then move on to the bigger rallying cries. Or just scroll down for the gnarly stuff.
Move your money
“Putting your money where your priorities are, in a markets based system, is a very important thing,” Cleetus says. Choose green investments, if that’s your thing, or just reassess where you keep your savings.
“The morals and ethics of banks can vary widely,” says Madeleine Morris, research associate at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment, “so where you have your savings and current accounts can make a difference.” Check out the Rainforest Action Network’s data: they grade high street banks on where they invest their money (spoiler: no one got an A).
Change your diet
Surprise! Going vegan will make a massive dent in your carbon footprint.
Heard evidence to the contrary? Some studies try and skew these facts by looking solely at the environmental footprints of animals, without considering the natural resources required to feed them. Oliver Taherzadeh, is an expert on the subject: “Once you crunch the numbers you find that eating animal products is incompatible with tackling all our major environmental challenges.”
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing: better to keep up a middle-ground commitment (like plant-based weekdays) than go vegan for a week, give up and go back to 24/7 cheese. “But keep challenging yourself to do more,” Morris says.
Remember, don’t be afraid to talk about it. Don’t preach, but share – inviting friends over for a vegan meal could convince them that meat isn’t always an essential ingredient. For free recipes, see Instagram.
Consider adoption
Having, or not having, kids in the name of climate change is a controversial suggestion. The maths can’t be denied: fewer people equals fewer emissions. But no one should be guilted out of having a family. So, another option is to adopt.
“Adoption should be advertised as the most climate-friendly family,” says Bill Ripple, professor of ecology at Oregon State University. “It’s a win-win.” This may seem more extreme to some than others, but extreme is what we need now. “Our best case scenario, if we act now, is having some climate change, rather than extreme climate change,” Bill says, referencing his recent paper. “If we continue with business as usual, we will have catastrophic climate change and untold human suffering.” Not exactly a family-friendly vibe.
Take a local holiday
Aeroplanes are not friends to the environment. “We don’t have an alternative, low-carbon fuel,” says Morris. Progress has been made (the world’s first fully electric commercial aircraft took its first flight in December), but we’re still a long way off (it only lasted 15 minutes), “so we definitely need to reduce our flying.”
The beauty of evolving technology means this won’t be an everlasting issue, but right now we need a shift in mindset. Next time you want a weekend away, don’t get lured in by discount flights. “They might seem cheap, but they have other costs that will make things much more expensive in the future,” says Morris. She suggests taking a train to somewhere new in the UK, “it might be just as different as exploring another country.”
Leave the car at home
Do you still drive to work? It’s not too late to ask for a bike for Christmas. If it’s too far to cycle, check the bus schedule. If driving is unavoidable, check the emissions of your car. Could you upgrade to an electric or hybrid alternative? What about working from home a few days a week?
“It seems like a really small thing at an individual level,” says Morris, but transport and travel accounts for 28 per cent of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. “If we all do it then it can make a huge difference.”
Consume conscientiously
Think about what you’re buying. New phone: do you need it? New outfit: will you wear it? New anything: what did it take to make it?
“Large portions of greenhouse gas emissions are made by large business sectors, but the activities of the business sectors are, in principle, driven by the demand of individual people,” says Jun’ya Takakura, researcher at the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Japan. So, if we boycott fast fashion and buy second-hand products, businesses will have to change.
If you need to refresh your wardrobe each week, try Depop, it has 13 million users now, each with a closet full of unwanted goods. If you’d rather leave the house, visit upmarket charity shops like Boutique by Shelter, they find the good stuff for you.
Make your house more energy efficient
Big changes in this category hinge on government help. But if you’ve got the funds and are tired of waiting, then you can install your own insulation and solar panels. The Grantham Institute recommend switching to a green energy tariff: it's an investment in renewable energy sources and could save you some cash.
Now we’re breaking out the big guns (in a very non-violent way). A big problem with our current system is that it puts the onus on the individual to change. But, as Cleetus says: “We aren’t going to solve this problem if we think of ourselves as little islands.” While individual actions are important, they won’t get us the change we need as quickly as we need it. “What’s really standing in the way of the bold transformative change we need is really a lack of political will.”
With that in mind, these final three points are the biggest actions you can take against climate change in 2020. Each one is an individual action, but contributes to our collective power.
Vote for environmental change
“We are not yet seeing people turn out in numbers enough for these issues,” says Cleetus. “People are not yet making this a top priority when they vote.” It’s not just national elections, local elections matter too.
“It’s a mistake to feel powerless, it’s a mistake to think we can’t change things because that’s going to doom us,” she says. Cleetus believes the narrative of powerlessness is an opposition tactic to try and get us to give up. “You only build power by showing up.”
Once we have the political will, real change can happen rapidly. “We don’t lack for the technology solutions, we’ve seen double digit cost declines in wind and solar and battery storage technologies, record renewable energy installations around the world,” says Cleetus. “The question is can we transform the politics in time?”
Speak up!
If your party didn’t win the election, don’t admit defeat. Write a letter, join a protest, make your voice heard. “Now that it’s so late in the game it’s important for individuals to become politically active,” says Ripple. Cleetus agrees: “Our pressure on politicians needs to be much more sharp and pointed, we need to be calling them out publicly and we need to be putting pressure on companies that are standing in the way of progress.”
She points to #ExxonKnew, a recent social media campaign accusing oil giant ExxonMobil of deceiving customers and shareholders by withholding information and obstructing climate action. The campaign turned into a fraud suit, which Exxon beat. But it caused enough of a stir to scare fossil fuel companies into thinking up climate-friendly business strategies. “We’re not done yet but these campaigns are exerting pressure,” says Cleetus.
Could car manufacturers be next, with a campaign to up the electric proportion of their fleets?
Push for greener policy, in any way possible
It’s time to get creative! We expect our politicians to hold big businesses to task. But if we can’t rely on them to do it, then why not do it ourselves?
ExxonMobil may have beat the fraud suit, but it now has to deal with an activist group pushing it to change its climate policy. As a minor stakeholder in the oil company (and four others), Follow This has the power to file shareholder resolutions – so at this year’s AGM, ExxonMobil’s board will have to discuss the Paris climate goals.
“We have to fight for climate action at every stage, that’s just an unfortunate reality of the completely distorted power structures embedded in many countries,” says Cleetus, “where the fossil fuel companies are speaking louder than the voices of people.”
Don’t get apathetic. Cleetus says: “This is the moment to show up, whether it’s in the streets in protest, in voting booths or as consumers – every single place that we can see an opportunity to shift this power structure, we need to show up.
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
