Individual Effort in Combatting Climate Change

Written by: Seppi Saatchi & Shadi Madani, August 19th 2023

Edited by: Seppi Saatchi

It is common knowledge that absurdly large emissions from fossil fuel companies and unsatisfactory government policy schemes addressing these emissions are the bulk contributors to climate change. Should we view this reality as permission to abandon our individual effort and place all of the blame on larger corporations? Will lifestyle changes regarding our consumer behaviours actually influence the actions of larger corporations or put pressure on political figures to take more stringent action? If we as consumers become more climate-conscious but also informed on what aspects of our lives are actually the most damaging to the climate (fossil fuels for transportation, air travel, and meat consumption), then we are more likely to move away from consumption in these industries and support alternative forms of consumption. By doing so, introductory economics would suggest that this signals to larger corporations a need to adopt more sustainable practices, thus promoting more transformative and large scale change as a result of combined individual effort. This is evident as airlines have taken careful steps to manage the lost business caused by guilt for the carbon footprint of air travel. However, there is also the concern that by communicating the need to tackle these emitting industries to consumers, they will absolve themselves of responsibility and adopt a “my actions are therefore pointless” mindset towards their personal footprints. This is an understandable reaction as the fact that 20 companies contributed to 35% of all energy-related carbon dioxide and methane emissions worldwide is highly discouraging to individual action.

Understanding our individual footprints and what behaviours or consumption patterns constitutes it is actually beneficial on both an individual and larger scale. By doing so we are able to weigh the disproportionate efforts between individual action and pushing for climate policy changes that look at the overall market and more closely target larger corporations that are responsible for mass emissions. This approach relies heavily on consumer knowledge of where the bulk of their emissions result from. Not only does an understanding of our personal footprints encourage individual action that promotes transformative change, but being informed on how our individual footprints provides us with a foundational understanding of how our personal footprints compare to that of large corporations.

With growing populations and therefore growing demand for emitting products, corporate emitters have stated that they are not responsible for how consumers use their final products. Although these statements are obvious attempts to curve responsibility onto individuals with limited choices over what technologies they access, the fact of the matter is that the demand for these products is certainly there. With 12 of the top 20 companies in America being state-owned and responsible for 20% of total emissions, there is a drive for consumers to take more political approaches such as urging political action from governments to fight the climate crisis and hold large emitters accountable. Therefore individuals should be taking action to urge governments to introduce policies such as subsidies and research grants that support technological alternatives to high emitting industries. This is incredibly relevant as 90% of the emissions attributed to the top 20 climate emitters result from products, such as petrol, jet fuel, natural gas, and thermal coal. Starting small with individual action may be an effective way to a dent in the emission reductions needed to begin combating climate change. We may not be able to control the choice in technologies, fuels, etc. that we are presented with, but we are able to advocate for the choices we do want to have yet don’t have direct control over. Ultimately, small scale actions are not just the cumulative effort of themselves, but the beginning steps to individuals feeling empowered to advocate for institutional changes that are out of their direct control — and are instead influenced by policy makers, big corporations, and global energy systems/infrastructure in general. Therefore, these small changes enable us to organize more meaningful change from those who hold the power to enact large scale change.

Big corporations that contribute mass amounts of emissions are successful in exploiting their monetary and political power to stifle sustainable innovation, lobbying against sustainable policies, and funding misinformation campaigns on climate change. Evidently, individual action, even with its cumulative effects and ability to encourage climate activism, is often counteracted by larger corporations. I believe informing individuals is an effective starting point to reconcile individual actions with the role of big corporations. If individuals are aware of where to direct their efforts (by looking at the emission impact of their personal flight emissions as compared to the military’s emissions in which they fund, for example) they can utilize their individual effort in the most effective areas that hold institutions and corporations accountable (through organized activism, lobbying, legal actions, etc.). As Leah Cardamore Stokes states in their article A Field Guide for Transformation, “Changing the energy system can start in your own life. But it’s important to remember that it cannot end there”. Essentially, Stoke is suggesting that although it is worthwhile to take actions for what you can control in your own life, you should also focus on high hanging fruit and target institutions as this will ultimately increase the number of choices you will have and further the impact of your individual efforts in the future. Collective action in this regard is very important as engaging your entire community can give your lobbying for climate policies a competitive advantage against the power of larger corporations. Once again, knowledge is incredibly powerful as much of the public, although informed on how damaging fossil based energy is to our environment, are not aware of how they can help beyond individual action.

By Informing consumers on both the reality of their own footprints as well as how these large fossil fuel companies are contributing to climate change, we can take an approach that includes the most meaningful actions from individual consumers, pushing for policies that hold fossil fuel companies accountable, and support the development of technology that allows for more alternatives and more consumer choices. Instead of individuals holding themselves overly responsible for purifying every aspect of their lives to reduce their carbon footprints, they should instead direct effort towards organizing collective change or involving themselves in collective change that already exists.