Individual action on climate change

Individual action on climate change is about personal choices that everyone can make to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of their lifestyles. Such personal choices are related to the way people travel, their diet, shopping habits, consumption of goods and services, number of children they have and so on. Individuals can also get active in local and political advocacy work around climate action. People who wish to reduce their carbon footprint (particularly those in high income countries with high consumption lifestyles), can for example reduce their air travel for holidays, use bicycles instead of cars on a daily basis, eat a plant-based diet, and use consumer products for longer.^[1] Avoiding meat and dairy products has been called "the single biggest way" how individuals can reduce their environmental impacts.^[2]

With regards to family size, excessive consumption may in fact be more to blame for greenhouse gas emissions and climate change than population increase. This is because high consumption lifestyles have a greater environmental impact, with the richest 10% of people emitting about half the total lifestyle emissions.^[3][4]

Some commentators say that actions taken by individual consumers, such as adopting a sustainable lifestyle, are insignificant compared to actions on the political level.^[5] Others say that individual action does lead to collective action because "lifestyle change can build momentum for systemic change."^[6][7]