This summer, my family and I will take the ferry to France instead of flying off to warmer climes. We eat much less meat nowadays and we’re saving to buy an electric car. But in the midst of a worldwide climate crisis, can my choices really make a difference?
The short answer is: of course. The view that the choices we make as consumers don’t affect our planet’s health is increasingly considered both untrue and irresponsible; take the plastic bag charge or the rollout of smart meters, for example. Both rely on seemingly small adjustments to everyday life that, when enacted en masse, lead to something greater: the plastic bag charge has greatly reduced plastic waste, whereas smart meters help to make the energy grid more responsive. Both signal a seachange in how we’re engaging with the climate crisis.
In 2017, my daughter and I founded Plastic Clever Salcombe, a child-led campaign to encourage the switch to reusables in my Devon hometown. Not only have 60% of Salcombe’s businesses now reached “plastic clever” status, but our schools workshops have had positive ripple effects: parents proudly tell me they’ve been told off for wrapping their child’s sandwich in clingfilm or have discovered a new range of eco-cleaning products. Tiny changes, yes, but significant? In terms of public engagement, it’s a big yes.
“There has been a real step change over the past two years in environmental awareness,” says Emily Armistead, deputy programme director at Greenpeace UK. “The massive rise in activism is a defining moment for us in the battle to combat climate change.” Greenpeace UK’s climate emergency petition was its fastest-growing ever, accumulating 416,000 signatures in just under a month, while the charity’s total number of supporters globally has risen by 20% to 1.26 million in the past two years.
This is crucial, says Armistead, because “our actions make the most impact when recognised by those in power as a demand for further action – when our small actions help open up the political space for greater action.”
Alice Bell, co-director of charity 10:10 Climate Action, agrees that we have to act socially to cut carbon emissions. “We all have a part to play in changing our culture,” she says. Take cutting down flying: we can amplify our efforts by talking about our decision, sharing images on social media of the train journey we have taken instead; doing what we can to create a cultural shift. Consider Greta Thunberg. Last August, the Swedish schoolgirl began a school strike to demand action on climate change – in March this year, 1.6 million young people around the globe followed suit. “It was a social act,” says Bell. “She sat in a public place, she wrote a sign so people would engage and she spoke about what she was doing.”
So while we can all be catalysts for change, we don’t exist in a vacuum; we are part of a complex ecosystem – and so advocacy is key. “If we want to make the changes we need, at the speed we need to do it,” says Bell, “we have to be clever about how change happens.” For Bell, that means a simultaneous bottom-up, top-down approach: making individual efforts while pressuring governments to make large-scale legislative change.
Cardiff University’s Prof Lorraine Whitmarsh, who has spent the past five years working on the Low Carbon Lifestyles and Behavioural Spillover programme, agrees: “Policymakers don’t feel they have the mandate to take ambitious action unless there’s grassroots demand for it. Equally, a top-down approach makes it easier for everybody to do things substantially differently.”
Studying 7,000 people across seven countries, Whitmarsh explored the idea that taking up one eco-behaviour, such as recycling, may lead to another, such as eating less meat. The report concluded that any spillover depends on motivation: if a person wants to make that first shift, they’re more likely to make further positive changes than if told to do so. Crucially, spillover only occurs when the similarities between behaviours are recognised as all contributing to a low-carbon lifestyle. Hence the importance of both advocacy and reinforcing positive social norms.
While the report acknowledges that no lifestyle is identical, and not all changes are possible, it highlights five key “behaviours” that can be adopted when working towards a low-carbon lifestyle. Civic action and political engagement is key, but four other everyday areas are also emphasised: transport, at best living car-free and avoiding air travel; diet, cutting down meat and dairy; “investment decisions”, such as opting for energy-efficient appliances; and household energy choices, including installing intelligent thermostats and smart meters.
It takes, therefore, a myriad approach for change to reach a tipping point. Just as attitudes towards smoking changed, there’s been a shift in opinion towards electric vehicles (EVs). In the Norwegian capital, Oslo, a combination of government policy – from VAT exemption to fast-charging stations – and municipal initiatives such as free parking and access to bus lanes – means that every third new car sold is battery powered.
Here in the UK, transport accounted for 28% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions in 2017. “Thanks to legislation, we are phasing out conventional vehicles and the number [of EVs] is increasing rapidly,” says Whitmarsh. “People are talking about their next car being an electric car, so we’re on the cusp of change.”
George Marshall, founder of Climate Outreach, is an expert on attitudes to the climate crisis. “We can achieve substantial and sustained behaviour changes when people [make] those changes as part of their own identities,” he says. “When you are consciously engaged, talking about what you have done can double or triple the impact.”
Since UK households account for 18% of the UK’s total greenhouse gas emissions, we can all take steps to create a lower-carbon society – then use our voices and social influence to amplify the positive impact of our actions on the environment. In other words, be the change, and shout about it.
We all want to make big changes to help our planet, but sometimes to make big changes, we have to start small. Smart meters can’t solve the climate crisis on their own but with the smarter, more energy efficient grid they help to create, they’re a start. To find out more about installing a smart meter in your home, search “I want a smart meter” or call 0300 131 8000*.
This article was paid for by Smart Energy GB, a government-backed organisation tasked with informing Great Britain about the smart meter rollout.
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