Reduce your meat consumption, take the bike for short trips, buy in bulk, sort your waste, turn off the water when you brush your teeth… Are we going to save the planet with this? Certainly not ! But the ecological transition cannot be done without you. The impact of eco-gestures and individual behavioral changes is greater than you might think!
The biggest received idea concerning climate issues, generally relayed by those who absolutely do not want to do anything (approximately 20% of the French population), is to affirm that small green gestures are useless and that they will never save the planet…
Stop trying to save the planet!
First, we should stop wanting save the planet at all costs, because it’s not about her. The planet has experienced many climatic upheavals and even mass extinctions and it is still very much alive.
Rather, it is preserve humanity by providing it with more or less acceptable survival conditions for the centuries to come. By remaining focused on the idea of ”saving the planet” we are completely wrong about the subject. But let’s move on…
“We all have our part to play. It is through the accumulation of modest acts carried out on our scale and reproduced here and there that things will end up changing in depth. »
Yann Arthus-Bertrand
What is the real impact of eco-gestures?
According to a study by theAdeme in 2019, 80% of French people say they are sensitive or very sensitive to the environment. This is great news. But how many of these tens of millions of our fellow citizens are ready to take serious action to lower their carbon footprint ?
It is not only a ecological fiber question or personal belief. Even if we can sometimes doubt it, the human being is rational. To undertake an action which costs him or which requires an effort on his part, he needs to find meaning. He needs to understand that it is for something…
So how much can the action of each individual contribute to the objective of moving, in 30 years, from an average carbon footprint of 10.5 tonnes CO2e per year to 2 tonnes per year (under Paris Agreement targets)?
Do not confuse eco-gestures with common sense
The impact of eco-gestures and, more broadly, of individual action is far from negligible if we do not limit ourselves to symbolic and marginal actions, such as sorting your waste, turning off the light, turning off the water while brushing your teeth or posting a “Stop Pub” sticker on your mailbox. These are not eco-gestures, it’s just common sense and education!
Based on simple changes in behavior and the way we consume, each of us is able to drop by about a quarter (2.8 t CO2e per year) their personal carbon footprint. It is considerable!
The authors of the report do your part* emphasize that the individual eco-gestures that produce the greatest impact on theindividual carbon footprint are essentially linked to three positions:
- Food: eat less meat and dairy products, eat local and seasonal products.
- Transportation : Replace short car trips with bicycles, use carpooling, stop traveling by plane.
- consumption of goods : Limit your purchases of clothes, prolong (or repair) your household appliances and hi-tech equipment (computers, telephones, etc.).
Numerical proof that it is possible!
These eco-gestures are required because they only depend on each one of us. In other words, if you don’t decide to do it yourself, no one will do it for you… It’s not your cousin, your mother or your neighbor who will choose for you more sober and less carbon. It only depends on you!
These eco-gestures are also essential because they have a educational value with citizens who can then lobby, Knowinglyon public authorities.
Beyond these eco-gestures, major investment decisions can come complete this reduction in the carbon footprint individual and reduce it by 2 tonnes of CO2e additional (per year and per person).
For this, households should prioritize two emission saving stations which, this time, involve significant financial investments. To be feasible, these investments must be necessarily supported by public authorities):
- Housing : renovation and insulation of his apartment or his house and replacement of his heating system by a low carbon device (reduction of 1.2 t CO2e per year and per person).
- The individual car : replace your internal combustion engine vehicle with a low-carbon, electric or hybrid vehicle (reduction of 0.8 t CO2e per year and per person).
Those two tons of additional emissions reduction potentially reduce the individual carbon footprint by 4.8 tonnes CO2e per yearthat is half the effort to go from 10.5 to 2 tons (under the objectives of the Paris Agreement).
We therefore see thatwith heroic effort (but spread over time), changes in habits and consumption patterns, but also substantial investments, each individual can do their part lowering so very significant its own greenhouse gas emissions.
For a rational individual, in search of meaning and commitment, climate action can thus become a realistic individual projecteven if it will require a lot of abnegation, renunciations and personal sacrifices.
The other half of the way
Even if he is able to cover half of the road, the citizen will not be able to solve alone the challenge posed by the energetic transition. It is the adaptation of the whole system which must make it possible to do the other half.
And the system is the community, so state and corporate responsibility. Their role in reducing the personal carbon footprint of the French is major.
“Our house is burning and we are looking elsewhere. »
Jacques Chirac (2002)
Companies must decarbonize their production and marketing processes by starting by identifying their dependence on carbon (industrial processes, freight of goods, transport of employees, energy supply, purchases of material goods, use and recycling of their products, etc.).
As for the State, everyone knows that it is very far from being up to the climate challenges for 30 years. Its primary responsibility is to renovate public buildings and decarbonize all the services for which he is responsible (health, education, defence, interior, social housing, etc.). There is work!
The State must also do everything to help decarbonise businesses and households and encourage investment in low-carbon sectors. When you think that the government has officially revived the nuclear industry that in the last quarter of 2021, we believe we are dreaming. We should not be surprised if we start to run out of electricity before 2030…
Without individual awareness (the famous eco-gestures) and without radical transformation of our socio-economic system, the challenge posed by the energy transition is neither playable nor realistic.
* Gpractical guide do your part by Carbone4 (founded by Jean-Marc Jancovici).
