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1.5-Degree Lifestyles: Towards A Fair Consumption Space for All: Summary for Policy Makers

  • Published on February 14, 2022

1.5-Degree Lifestyles report demonstrates, changes in predominant lifestyles, especially in high-consuming societies, will determine whether we meet commitments in the Paris Agreement and avoid dire consequences of climate change. The findings stated in the report highlight the large potential lifestyle changes required across consumption domains in order to implement the Paris Agreement. The Summary for the policy makers, brings out the key factors of the report, that could be instrumental for developing policies and strategies for a sustainable future and promote 1.5-degree lifestyles amongst the communities.

 

 

This report continues the science-based approach of linking concrete changes in lifestyles to measurable impacts on climate change in order to keep with the 1.5-degree aspirational target of the Paris Agreement on climate change. The report explores impacts of consumption in six domains: food; housing, personal transport; goods; leisure; and services, and uses these to aggregate total lifestyle carbon footprints and reveal hotspots in the ten surveyed countries, representing high-, middle-, and low-income countries, and identifies consumption domains with the highest impact on the environment.

 

Targets and gaps - 

According to the findings there are massive gaps between current per capita footprints and targets; the lifestyle carbon footprint target for 2050 is exceeded in all countries therefore, target to reduce footprints in different percentages by 2030, 2040 and 2050.

Hotspots

The report explores impacts of consumption in six domains: food; housing, personal transport; goods; leisure; and services, and uses these to aggregate total lifestyle carbon footprints and reveal hotspots in the ten surveyed countries. Focusing efforts to change lifestyles in relation to these domains would yield the most benefits; the three domains of food, housing, and personal transport tend to have the largest impact (approximately 79%) on total lifestyle carbon footprints. For each country it presents two scenarios: one prioritizing systems change (adjusting carbon intensity of lifestyles options) and one prioritizing behavior change (adjusting volume of consumption).

The report highlights a number of policy frameworks that may help society transition towards fair consumption within planetary boundaries. These recognize that significant lifestyle changes are, however, only possible if they occur within broader system change in the underlying economic and social conditions, and that the burden of change also includes communities, businesses and institutions, and government agencies. Recommendations here deliberately focus on a few radical approaches that are not yet part of the mainstream climate discourse.

  • The first approach is taking out the harmful consumption options, through choice editing.
  • The second approach requires setting limits for environmentally harmful consumption and staying within those limits.
  • The third set of policy approaches is intended to ensure a more equitable wellbeing society. One recommendation is to adopt a sufficiency approach to the design of policy and practical solutions.

This report puts forward some ideas on research policy and practice to accelerate the transformation towards a low-carbon society and a stable climate with a vision showing opportunity, centre on wellbeing, and engage the youth population that is heavily affected by climate anxiety and that is destined to live with our success or failure to create a sustainable future.

The report was created with the Partnership organizations such as Hot or Cool, Club of Rome, D-mat, IEEP, IGES, Sitra and Financial Support to Produce the report was given by KR Foundation and the ClimateWorks Foundation.

 

 

 

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