5.2 The role of active citizens and communities

Although the UK Climate Change Committee argues that individuals and households have a major role in reducing emissions, governments have been reluctant to try to change the lifestyles and consumption habits of millions of individuals, focusing instead on working with business and other major decision makers – for example, to decarbonise the electricity supply system.

As George Marshall (2014) has argued, from a psychological viewpoint, asking people to reduce their carbon footprint to help tackle climate change is a very difficult message to get across, as it may require immediate sacrifices in order to address an invisible long-term problem. This is despite storms, floods, heatwaves and other damaging weather events now becoming increasingly frequent and obvious. As these impacts of climate change become more obvious, ‘ecoanxiety’ is also becoming more prevalent, particularly among young people; although this can spur action, it can have the opposite effect and lead to paralysis in taking action. Also, individuals don’t control many of the decisions that affect their carbon footprint, such as national energy and transport policies, town planning, food processing and retailing practices, overseas farming and manufacturing, and so on. Purchasing decisions made by individuals are also influenced by increasingly sophisticated, personalised marketing messages. In other words, while individuals and households are directly or indirectly responsible for most of the consumption of goods and services, they do not control their production, distribution and marketing.

So it is now recognised that while individuals and households can do much to reduce their carbon footprints, they alone can’t make the rapid and radical reductions needed to reach a globally sustainable footprint. That requires actions by communities, businesses, and local and national governments.

However, even if individuals don’t directly control many economic activities and policy decisions, in a democracy at least, active citizens can exert influence by voting in elections and through political involvement. So, another way ‘we’ can help reduce carbon footprints is by joining with others in an environmental pressure, protest or action group such as the WWF (previously the World Wide Fund for Nature), Extinction Rebellion, Friends of the Earth or Greenpeace. Many now argue that it is as important, or even more important, for individuals to pressure governments to pursue urgent action on climate change as it is for them to reduce their personal carbon footprints.

A less ‘political’ approach is to join one of the voluntary groups that get together to help themselves and others to reduce their individual and household impacts. Such voluntary groups include local groups in the Transition Network, as well as the approximately 500 UK community energy groups with nearly 60 000 members that were operating in 2021, which were formed to install renewable energy technologies, improve home energy efficiency and develop low-carbon transport (Community Energy England, 2023).

In the workplace, individuals can switch off lights and computers, recycle waste paper, and so on. But surveys show that individuals are less likely to save energy at work than at home, as they don’t have to pay the bills. However, by working with their colleagues, they can help each other to adopt green practices and encourage their employer to adopt environmental policies – for example, switching to a green electricity supplier, setting up recycling facilities, and establishing staff travel plans. Larger organisations may also have the resources to provide opportunities for employees to take actions aimed at reducing environmental impacts. For example, as part of its sustainability strategy, The Open University has the ‘Go Green’ initiative that facilitates staff to take action on saving energy, waste, water and travel.