Consumption

Researchers at the centre for Climate Change and Social Transformations (CAST) have found widespread public support for low-carbon lifestyles. In workshops, people explored visions of an ideal 1.5°C future:

• Food norms are seen to be shifting. While vegan diets are still seen as too restrictive, there is strong support for reducing food waste, and support for the adoption of balanced diets that reduce meat consumption, deliver health co-benefits, and local benefits to farmers.
• The future of shopping and consumption was seen as going ‘full circle back to the 50s’, with less packaging, long-lasting and affordable, with emissions labelling, and a rise in ‘swapping shops’ and the second-hand market.
• There is a strong desire for fewer cars on the road, infrastructure to support active travel, and electrification of transport. Frequent flyer taxes are seen acceptable in the short term, but people hoped for more efficient air travel in future.
• Home refurbishment and better housing standards were almost universally positively received – with government support seen as non-negotiable.

However, common ‘narratives of delay’ also punctuated these positive visions, stemming from what the authors identified as three emotional defense mechanisms:

1) Overconfidence in current actions (thinking that small changes have more impact than they actually do)

2) Defensiveness over radical change (despite many lifestyle changes requiring only moderate adjustments for many)

3) Dejection at the scale of the challenge (with fatalism acting as a demotivator for making lifestyle changes)

The paper concludes that:

“Rethinking strategies for public engagement with climate action will be an essential step towards creating a positive, ambitious, fair, sustainable vision of the future that is desperately needed as part of a people-centred approach to tackling climate change”