As more than 100 world leaders wrangle over renewables and greenhouse gas emission targets for their countries at COP26, the lone individual can start to feel pretty helpless. As of early November, some 80 nations were reportedly on board with a commitment to slash methane emissions by 30% by 2030. But how can you and I reduce our personal carbon footprint? Can it even be done?
In 2019, scientists at the Grantham Institute for climate change at London’s Imperial College recommended nine ways in which an individual could make a difference “as a consumer, a customer, a member of the electorate and an active citizen”. They were good suggestions, ranging from social activism to eating less meat, turning down the heating and replacing light bulbs with LEDs. The scientists even tackled shopping, pointing out that “everything we use as consumers has a carbon footprint.”
Culture of consumption
But shopping is a complicated and contested issue, considering the culture of consumption that has been encouraged in the West since the 1890s. As Columbia University professor of history William R. Leach noted, big department stores became institutions in their own right in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and totally transformed the philosophy and practice of shopping.
