Nonthaburi in 2030: Envisioning 1.5-Degree Lifestyles

Published on February 18, 2022

'Nonthaburi in 2030: Envisioning 1.5-Degree Lifestyles' shares findings of the ‘Envisioning Future Low-Carbon Lifestyles and Transitioning Instruments’ demonstration project, 2019-2021. This project was implemented under the United Nations’ One Planet network and funded by the Government of Japan through its contribution to the 10YFP Trust Fund, administered by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). This project is led by the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, in collaboration with Akatu Institute, Brazil; Chulalongkorn University, Thailand; ICLEI Africa, South Africa; Swechha, India; Hot or Cool Institute, Germany; ICLEI, Japan; Science Communications and Research Institute (SCRI), Japan; D-mat, Finland; National Institute for Environmental Studies (NIES), Japan.

This report, ‘Nonthaburi in 2030’, recommended some plausible options for 1.5-Degree Lifestyles and measures to support them. This will put society on a path towards realising the globally unified 1.5-Degree Lifestyles target of 2.5 t-CO2e/capita/year, which is compatible with the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. Based on an assessment of consumption data across housing, food, mobility, goods, services and leisure, it was calculated that the average lifestyle carbon footprint in Nonthaburi is currently 3.15t-CO2e/capita/year.

The report identified 54-actionable lifestyle change options based on project-wide extensive literature review and estimated their potential to reduce carbon footprints based on consumption amounts and energy intensity for production across the housing, food, mobility, goods, services and leisure domains. The report proposed consumption side measures can reduce Nonthaburi’s average lifestyle carbon footprint from 3.15t-CO2e/capita/year to 2.5t-CO2e/capita/year (-23%), assuming no changes in renewable energy share and no changes in environmental efficiency improvement.

This report accentuated that a 1.5°C Lifestyle of 2.5 t-CO2e/ capita/year target is very ambitious but can be achieved if all the stakeholders take adequate action in a collaborative manner. It aims to provide ideas for a diverse range of citizens towards realising 1.5°C Lifestyles, while noting that adoption rates are only indicative figures, and not future projections or targets. Moreover, the report stressed that it is neither realistic nor desirable to expect all citizens to take the carbon footprint reduction actions described in the report, regardless of their different standards of living and diversity of needs such as mobility, housing and food.

The report summerized four key messages:

Nonthaburi households focus on key terms, ‘values’ and ‘practices’ as part of a unified vision to achieve future sustainable lifestyles.
The highest carbon reduction options are: having meals at home instead of going out, eliminating food waste, and avoiding fast fashion consumption.
To promote sustainable lifestyles in Nonthaburi, a combination of actions across domains is required. Multiple time-scale strategies also play an essential role in these different actions.
There is no one-size-fits-all policy. The report proposed a set of policy recommendations in four sections: i) cooperative strategy (ii) main sectoral strategies, (iii) stakeholder roles, and (iv) themes and choices for implementation.