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Wealthy countries have been found to have lifestyle carbon footprints up to 17 times higher than climate targets, and there is one big culprit.<\/p>\n
A new report from the Hot or Cool Institute has warned that meeting the Paris Agreement and limiting global warming to below 1.5\u00b0C will be \u201cvirtually impossible\u201d without also addressing inequality and overconsumption.<\/p>\n
The Berlin-based thinktank analysed the lifestyle carbon footprint for 25 countries, covering high, upper-middle, and lower-middle incomes – the broadest assessment of its kind.<\/p>\n
It found that high-income countries must slash their average lifestyle emissions by 82 to 94 per cent.<\/p>\n
However, none of the countries sampled were on track to meet climate targets<\/strong><\/a> either, with upper-middle income countries and lower-middle income countries needing to cut their average lifestyle emissions by up to 81 and 67 per cent, respectively.<\/p>\n High-income countries with the highest lifestyle carbon footprint<\/p>\n The United States<\/strong><\/a> topped the rankings, with average emissions coming out 17 times higher than needed for a Paris-aligned lifestyle<\/strong><\/a>. This was followed by Australia (12 times higher) and Canada (11 times higher).<\/p>\n Out of the 25 countries sampled, every EU country was categorised as high-income.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Italy<\/strong><\/a> was found to be the worst polluter, with lifestyle emissions 7.5 times higher than climate goals require, followed by Germany, Portugal, and Estonia.\u00a0<\/p>\n Greece has the lowest average lifestyle emissions within the high-income bracket, but is still exceeding targets by over five times.<\/p>\n \u2018A stark choice\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cThe remaining carbon budget is now so small that national governments across the world will face a stark choice over whether to focus on meeting societal needs or addressing the impacts of climate change, unless drastic measures are urgently taken,\u201d says Dr Lewis Akenji, executive director of Hot or Cool Institute<\/strong><\/a> and lead author of the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe climate and social crises are inseparable, with rising emissions and widening inequalities reinforcing one another.\u201d<\/p>\n What lifestyle changes can lower my carbon footprint?<\/p>\n Researchers outlined three key areas to \u201cdirectly address overconsumption\u201d and considerably reduce per capita lifestyle carbon footprints.<\/p>\n Nutrition, housing, and transport consistently ranked as the primary drivers of lifestyle-related emissions, accounting for 66 to 95 per cent of the total lifestyle carbon footprint across income groups.<\/p>\n As a result, the experts recommend adopting a plant-based, vegetarian, or planetary health diet<\/strong><\/a> that can cut 1,000\u20132,500 kilograms of CO\u2082e per person annually, depending on the country’s context.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ditching private cars in urban areas and shifting to public or active transport – as well as \u201creshaping urban planning\u201d so more people live closer to work or school – can also have a sizeable impact.\u00a0<\/p>\n Both of these factors can save more than 1,000 kg of\u00a0 CO\u2082e per person per year, particularly in car-dependent nations.<\/p>\n Retrofitting buildings, using low-carbon materials, and moving over to clean heating and cooling systems can also reduce energy demand and lifestyle-related emissions<\/strong><\/a> \u201cat scale\u201d.<\/p>\n Will a \u2018wealth cap\u2019 help the environment?<\/p>\n