I have been doing a lot of work recently on how narrow corporate interests are a seemingly insurmountable obstacle to making the changes necessary to stop the destruction of the environment. A few weeks back, I reviewed A Climate of Truth by Mike Berners-Lee, which makes a powerful case that dishonesty and obfuscation by climate-trashing industries are a major cause of environmental destruction. It reminded me of an interview I did a few years ago with Harvard science historian Naomi Oreskes, who has spent years exposing the tactics of corporate science deniers in the tobacco industry and oil and gas sector. I remember being dismayed by the depth of their deceit. Sadly, things have not gotten any better.
More recently, I’ve watched in horror as the new Donald Trump administration in the US strips away all environmental protections and slashes and burns related science, seemingly hell-bent on allowing private companies to do whatever they like in pursuit of profit. We are, it seems, fighting a losing battle.
It was against this disempowering background that some from the not-for-profit World Resources Institute (WRI) caught my eye. The headline read ““. It would be, I hoped, a timely reminder that ordinary people are not powerless, plus some novel and actionable advice about how to live a climate-friendly life. So, I read the report.
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First, the good news. By adopting pro-climate behaviours in just three areas of our lives – how we travel, how we power our homes and what we eat – it is theoretically possible for individuals to become carbon-neutral or even carbon-negative. The is directly responsible for 6.28 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions a year, according to the WRI. Its analysis found that behavioural change can cancel that out completely, or even overshoot it by just under a quarter of a tonne.
What are these behaviours, I wondered, and why are they not what I’ve been told? Number one is to ditch petrol-powered cars and switch to electric vehicles (EVs), public transport or active transport such as walking or cycling. Going completely car-free can cut personal emissions by 30 per cent. Hmm, I think I knew that.
The Trump administration wants to abolish tax credits that make home solar power more affordable
Next on the list is flying less, which can achieve an 18 per cent cut. Number three is installing solar panels, insulation and a heat pump at home, which – along with moving to a smaller property – can reduce emissions by 16 per cent. Switching to a plant-based diet can cut your emissions by about 13 per cent. Meanwhile, familiar but less impactful actions include recycling, composting, cutting food waste and marginal reductions in household energy use by, for example, switching to more energy-efficient appliances.
No obvious revelations there, but it is still good to know that individual behavioural changes can have a major impact. Right?
Here’s the rub: even though these actions can theoretically wipe out the average person’s carbon footprint (actually a concept invented by energy company BP in 2004 to divert attention from the hydrocarbon industry’s impact on the climate and shift the onus onto individual actions), in the real world such actions typically make only a 10 per cent reduction. That is nowhere near enough to get to net zero.
To realise the full potential of behavioural change, people need the support of – wait for it – governments and corporations. That includes subsidising investments in heat pumps or cleaner vehicles, installing charging infrastructure for EVs, investing in public transport and bike lanes, and offering tasty plant-based meals in canteens. That appears to be the opposite of what is happening out there; the WRI report admits that the Trump administration, for example, wants to abolish tax credits that make EVs and home solar power more affordable. Governments are retreating from net-zero targets around the world.
That’s not to say it can’t be done, and the WRI report gives examples. The Netherlands introduced generous subsidies for home solar installations and allowed households to sell surplus electricity into the power grid, transforming a country that once had low uptake of home solar panels into the . In Bogotá, Colombia, investment in cycling infrastructure has the number of journeys made by bicycle from 0.58 per cent in 1996 to 9.1 per cent in 2017.
I applaud the WRI for its timely reminder that individual behavioural change has a role to play in tackling the climate crisis. But I would rather they had told it straight: governments and corporations are failing us.
Graham’s week
What I’m reading
Juice by Tim Winton.
What I’m watching
The new season of Black Mirror on Netflix.
What I’m working on
A lot of stories about intestines…
Graham Lawton is a staff writer at 91av and author of Mustn’t Grumble: The surprising science of everyday ailments. You can follow him @grahamlawton
