Blog

The CO2 emissions of flying have been a hot topic for several years now, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic when the amount of flight travel decreased momentarily (UN News, 2021). In the meantime, discussions on alternative ways of travelling have surfaced. But how convenient is it to travel by train in Europe? During spring 2022, when it was time for our first in-person meeting in Germany with the EU 1.5° Lifestyles partners, my colleague…

The latest UNEP Emissions Gap Report (2021) and IPCC sixth assessment report (2022) show that it is possible to limit the global temperature rise to 2.2°C if the net-zero emissions pledges are fully implemented and, thus, they call for immediate action both from the production and consumption-side. The  projections show that policy-makers, businesses and society need to take effective measures to mitigate greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and…

One of the heart pieces of the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project are the so-called Citizen Thinking Labs. Does this mean we lock up citizens into laboratories and experiment with their brains? No, of course not. We had a virtual coffee with our two project partners Lena Domröse and Maren Tornow from adelphi, who conceptualize the labs, to learn more about what a Citizen Thinking Lab looks like.

In the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project, we are working and interacting with different stakeholders to learn more about 1.5° lifestyles as well as the factors that enable and obstruct efforts to these ways of living. As part of this learning process, we are interviewing citizens who are pioneers of 1.5° lifestyles in different European countries. We will share their inspiring stories in our blog. First, we share the story of a Hungarian family.

The IPCC report underlines the need to stay within 1.5° of warming.
We sat down with Dan O’Neill to discuss the topic of transformative change, (limits to) economic growth, and how 1.5° lifestyles can be “a good life for all”. Below we have summarised the key takeaways from our discussion.

One of the key features of the 1.5° lifestyles approach is going beyond the assumption that consumers are the only ones responsible for the climate impacts of consumption. Our lives and behaviors are shaped and structured by factors such as income, policy, infrastructure, media and societal values. All of these variables shape the environment in which we consume and determine which choices are available for individuals living in different…