Can 1 person's actions help stop climate change? Here's what experts say

Can people's individual actions make a difference in how much carbon dioxide is emitted on an international scale?

International organizations such as the United Nations have called on individuals to limit their carbon footprint and live more sustainably, along with governments and corporations.

Some argue it would be more effective to focus on changing government and corporate policy to limit emissions from the energy and agriculture sectors than asking individuals to limit their carbon footprints. Experts say that while that's true, every bit of emissions reduction helps.

"We should all be the most responsible citizens we can be in every sense of the word and contribute to a sustainable existence on this planet," said University of Pennsylvania climate scientist Michael Mann. He said that means, in part, minimizing our carbon footprints as individuals.

And that can take a lot of different forms.

The United Nations Act Nowcampaign for individual climate action suggests people can minimize their personal carbon footprint directly by changing their energy and transportation use and food consumption.

Other, less direct methods for reducing carbon emissions include divesting from fossil fuel companies in retirement plans, protesting to support climate action and lobbying government officials to pass environmentally sustainable policies.

Meat matters

Elizabeth Robinson, the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment's director, pointed to stopping deforestation and tweaking diets as solutions since forests naturally absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

Using land for agriculture, especially for livestock which also requires vast amounts of land for grazing, means forests need to be cleared and more greenhouse gasses are emitted into the air.

"This is a very controversial area, but in most higher-income countries, most people eat far more meat than they need to," Robinson said.

Kim Cobb, a Brown University climate scientist, said there are consequences to individuals having "outsized" carbon footprints. And still there are people who engage in the environmental movement who don't consider their personal carbon footprints.

"I think we're living in an anti-gravity moment where people are able to say, 'I'm not concerned about my first, personal carbon footprint. Collective action matters the most,"' she said. In the future, though, "there will be a moral and social cost to bear by those individuals."

Cutting fossil fuels is critical

Still, there are some climate impacts that people aren't individually responsible for and can't change on their own. Over 70 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions produced between 1988 and 2015 came from 100 fossil fuel companies, according a 2017 report by CDP, formerly known as the Carbon Disclosure Project.

And despite the United Nations' warnings to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions, countries are planning on extracting double the amount of fossil fuels than what would be consistent with keeping the global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius, even as they pledge to make ambitious cuts.

In a 2021 report, the International Energy Agency said there can be no new investments in fossil fuels if the world wants to reach its climate goals. The most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change said "immediate and deep" cuts to dirty fuels were needed.

So, although there are things individuals can do to minimize their personal carbon footprints, Mann said, "we must not allow ... polluters to reframe the discussion so that it falls entirely upon individuals, which takes the pressure off of them."

"We can't pass legislation ourselves that incentivizes renewable energy or that blocks new fossil fuel infrastructure. We can't impose regulations on industry. We can't negotiate directly with international partners. We need our policymakers to do that," Mann said.

"Those things can only be enacted at the systematic level, and that's why we have to keep the pressure on policymakers and on corporations and those who are in a position to make the changes that we can't make ourselves."

Shift to renewables, green tech needed

The world is currently reliant on fossil fuels for much of its electricity, heating and transportation, as well as agriculture and industry. It's hoped that cleaner alternatives such as solar and wind energy will replace much of that demand.

As costs of renewables plummet, more and more energy is being produced in sustainable ways, although the total amount of energy produced globally has also gone up.

"There's been quite a rapid uptake of renewables, but emissions are continuing to rise," said Robinson. "We also need to see overall global emissions falling, and at the moment global emissions from fossil fuels are still increasing."

While renewable energy sources work well for electricity production, other industries such as cement-making, steel and shipping will be harder to wean off dirty fuels. That's why experts are looking into technologies that may be able to help these specific sectors, as well as the possibility of "green fuels," such as those made out of plant materials or natural waste, known as biofuels.

Newer technologies such as green hydrogen, which uses renewable energy sources to make hydrogen to use for energy, and carbon capture, which sucks carbon dioxide out of the air, are also being explored but still come with a heavy price tag and are untested on a large scale.

Methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 25 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide but only lasts in the atmosphere for about a dozen years, will also have to be greatly reduced. Countries have vowed to plug methane leaks from oil wells and gas pipelines which would have immediate benefits for curbing warming, scientists say.

In addition to limiting climate change, humans will also need to learn how to live with some warming. Looking at how to rein in warming while simultaneously learning to acclimate is known as "mitigation and adaptation" in climate circles. Many officials and scientists say both are needed.

"We've got to do everything," said Robinson. "It's too late to say one thing's better than the other."