Project description
Lifestyle transformation can help combat global warming
To meet the 1.5 degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement, lifestyles must change fundamentally. This primarily concerns resource-intensive consumption areas of mobility, housing, food, and leisure. To help mainstream 1.5 degree lifestyles, the EU 1.5 Lifestyles project connects an analysis of individual lifestyle perspectives with an investigation of structural influences on lifestyle choices and impacts. On that basis, it develops recommendations and tools for political decision-makers, households and intermediary actors. It targets the problem that prevalent behaviour-based approaches tend to make individual consumers responsible for addressing the climate crisis, while neglecting the effects of political-economic, societal and technological structures. Against this background, the project quantifies lifestyle options and identifies necessary changes in relevant structures to enable impactful lifestyle changes.
Objective
The IPCC concludeThe IPCC concludes in their Special Report on Global Warming that limiting global temperature increase needs demand-side actions and lifestyle changes. Previous attempts to realise demand-side changes have been hampered by several factors: First, there is very limited quantitative data showing how much a proposed change in lifestyle would contribute to climate change mitigation. Thus, policy makers and citizens lack guidance to make informed choices. Second, there is still limited evidence of public acceptance of drastic changes. This has led to internationally uncoordinated policies and to policies that will very likely fall short on having sufficient impact. Third, policies have usually promoted changes of individual behaviour without addressing structural constraints or structural drivers of unsustainable lifestyles. This has led to policies that remain ineffective and frustrate citizens who wish to make positive lifestyle choices.
We aim to address all three of the above issues, by connecting an analysis of individual lifestyle perspectives, on household level, with policies and socio-economic structures, on all levels from international to local. The analysis will be structured according to the emerging 1.5-degree lifestyles approach, which members of the consortium have helped to define. The advantage of a lifestyle-oriented approach is to link concrete transformations of lifestyle by individuals to transformations of the structural context by policies, economic, and societal institutions. This inclusive approach is original in terms of a research strategy. In practical terms, it is very promising as it offers concrete guidance and as it can be scaled to political, social, and economic capacities on regional to (supra-) national levels. We pursue our aims using quantitative and qualitative methods, country-level assessments and sector-based case studies, as well as innovative participatory formats and a broad range of communication methods.
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Funding Scheme
RIA - Research and Innovation actionCoordinator
14473 POTSDAM
Germany