Top 10 ways to reduce your CO2 emissions footprint

Solving climate change is a huge international challenge. Only a concerted global effort, involving the governments of all nations, will be enough to avert dangerous consequences. But that said, the individual actions of everyday people are still crucial. Large and complex issues, like climate change, are usually best tackled by breaking down the problem into manageable bits.

For carbon emissions, this means reducing the CO₂ contribution of each and every one of the six and a half billion people on the planet. But what can you, as an individual person or family, do that will most make a difference to the big picture? Here are my top ten action items, which are both simple to achieve and have a real effect. They are ranked by how much impact they make to ‘kicking the CO₂ habit’.

1. Make climate-conscious political decisions. Some commentators said that the 2007 Australian Federal election was the first to be strongly influenced by the stance made by competing political parties on climate change. Regardless of how true this may be, it is obvious that the strong and urgent action needed to combat climate change will require a healthy dose of political will, and the courage to make tough choices. This willpower comes from voters, who consistently demand real action and can see through ‘greenwashing’ (pretend ‘solutions’ and half-measures that do not do the job). Climate change should be a totally non-partisan issue since it affects all people and all countries. If climate change is not perceived by both sides of politics as a ‘core issue’, it will inevitably be marginalised by apparently more immediate concerns. So assess policies clearly, and make your vote count towards real climate solutions – each and every election. This is the only way a global solution can be put in place, in time.

2. Eat less red meat. Traditional red meat comes from ruminant livestock such as cattle and sheep. These animals produce large amounts of methane, which is a greenhouse gas that packs 72 times the punch of CO₂ over a 20 year period. Other types of meat, such as chicken, pork or kangaroo, produce far less emissions. At average levels of consumption, a family’s emissions from beef would easily outweigh the construction and running costs of a large 4WD vehicle, in less than 5 years. There is no need to cut out red meat entirely, but fewer steaks and snags mean far less CO₂.

3. Purchase “green electricity“. The future of energy clearly likes in renewable sources such as solar, wind and wave power and ‘hot rocks’. Even without climate change, there are limits to available oil, natural gas and coal. ‘Green power’ is electricity that comes from these technologies, but is delivered to you in the same way as ‘dirty power’ from fossil-fuel burning. That is, down your power lines. You can buy enough to replace your entire energy usage, or some fraction (I recommend going for 100%; the cost is a few more cents per kilowatt hour of electricity). Most energy suppliers now offer this service and will purchase energy from green sources that is equivalent to what you use. As more people take up this scheme, it will drive ever greater investment in these technologies, reduce cost of delivery, and so further hasten the pace of update. It’s a feedback, and you can be the catalyst of change. [Note some problems with GreenPower here]

4. Make your home and household energy efficient. We all unthinkingly leave lights on when we are not in the room, or switch off the TV by the remote instead of at the wall, fire up the heater on when we could put on an extra layer of clothing, or turn on the air conditioner when we could open the window and turn on a fan. It’s force of habit – a bad habit we can break, with just a little thought. Behaviour change lies at the heart of most individual actions on reducing our individual carbon footprint. By being sensible about your use household energy use, and making sure your house is well insulated, you can make a huge dent in your CO₂ emissions. Oh, and it will save you plenty money that you no longer spend on wasted energy, year in, year out.

5. Buy energy and water efficient appliances. Aside from behavioural change, we can invest in more sensible technologies that help us in our day to day lives. When buying new electronic appliances, air conditioners or washing machines, look at their energy and water usage. The more energy efficient they are, the more they’ll save you in the long run, and the lower their CO₂ impact will be. In most cases the ‘payback period’ – the difference between the initial cost of a high versus low efficiency appliance and the long-term savings in lower electricity and water bills, is only a matter of a few months to a few years. After that, you are laughing all the way to the bank, and doing something meaningful to combat climate change at the same time.

6. Walk, cycle or take public transport. Cars are not only a slow way to get to work when you’re faced with a city gridlock – they are also a huge user of oil (which is running out globally) and cost the tax payer heft amounts in road building and maintenance. Getting people from A to B using trains, buses, bikes and on foot is much more greenhouse friendly, and often considerably cheaper. The main problem right now with public transport is that because not enough people use it, there is not enough investment by government to improve the quality of service and capacity to support large volumes of commuters. It might seem like a Catch-22, but some cities have solved the dilemma and now move most of their people about on public transport. So start patronising your public transport network, and push governments at all levels for some decent bicycle and walking trails instead of building more and more roads for cars and worrying incessantly about fuel costs. The transition to a new transport system has to start with each and every one of us.

7. Recycle, re-use and avoid useless purchases. We throw too much away and still re-cycle too little of what we must discard. Large amounts of energy and water go into producing endless amounts of ‘stuff’, much of which we don’t really need or end up using. So be sure to use your local recycling service, for plastics, metals and paper. Try to get appliances and tools fixed rather than replaced – the carbon footprint of fixing things is far lower than making them from scratch. Avoid the temptation to buy useless trinkets and knick-knacks, just because it feels good to accumulate things. There are limits to everything, including, most importantly, the ability of the planet to supply people with an ever burgeoning supply of raw materials. Think sustainability.

8. Telecommute and teleconference. Do you really need to fight your way through traffic each and every day, just to sit at your office desk and work on your computer? Do you need to fly to a business meeting in another capital city in order to talk to your colleagues? Or can you think inventively and make best use of the benefits of the Internet to do some of this remotely? Telecommuting can be an effective way of doing ‘paperwork’ in your home office and more and more employers are seeing the benefits of this and embracing the concept. Teleconferences mean less wasted aeroplane trips, which create a huge CO₂ burden. It can’t always be done, but even a few less trips, here and there, add up to make a big difference. As with the other 10 points, it is about making smart and informed choices when you have options.

9. Buy local produce. Food miles are now firmly part of the new carbon lingo. This is a way of expressing how far an item of food has travelled before it reaches your dinner table, and therefore how much CO₂ has been emitted during freighting. A better concept is probably ‘embodied energy’, which takes account of all the carbon, water and energy that goes into producing any food or manufactured item. Either way, a good rule of thumb is that if you buy something that has been produced locally, it will usually have a lower CO₂ tag attached to it. Your local fresh food market is a good place to start for your food shopping. Buying Australian-made manufactured and food products is another carbon-friendly option. Both will make a difference to your climate change impact, and help the local economy. Another win-win choice.

10. Offset what you can’t save. Avoiding the release of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases, in the ways described above, is by far the best and most direct way or reducing our climate change impact. Yet some emissions are unavoidable. For those, offsetting is a worthwhile option. This is done by purchasing ‘carbon credits’ from accredited companies which offer this service, who will then invest those dollars in (for instance) renewable energy projects or planting trees. Carbon offsets should definitely not be seen as the solution, or as a relatively pain-free way to expel your carbon guilt. There is nowhere near enough offsetting potential in the world for this to be an option for most of the world’s population. But in conjunction with other methods of kicking the CO₂ habit, offsets can help make a difference and allow you to pay a small penance.