Scholars have shown that lifestyle change is pivotal for any effective climate-mitigation scenario. But what lifestyle changes are needed and how can they be enabled and mainstreamed? This is the question pursued by the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project, the results of which the article summarizes and synthesizes. The project integrated quantitative and qualitative methods, ranging from input-output analysis-based footprint calculations to co-creative “thinking labs” and policy Delphi workshops across five European countries (Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Spain, and Sweden) to identify the most impactful lifestyle changes; determine conditions for their mainstreaming; suggest how rebound effects could be prevented; uncover the main political, economic, and societal barriers to lifestyle change and governance in its pursuit; and assess how changes in welfare systems and business models could contribute to lifestyle change. Our results show that changing from car-based mobility (especially internal combustion engine-powered cars) to other modes of transport has the largest emissions-reduction potential across a range of European countries, with changes in housing, especially switching to renewable-based heating systems, comprising a second group of impactful options. The article also shows that achieving meaningful changes in lifestyles requires transforming politico-economic, technological, and societal structures to enable (or to cease hindering) the adoption of relevant low-carbon lifestyle options at the household level. Acknowledging the political challenges to achieving such transformations, the article considers the options for mobilizing transformative change.
Fuchs et al. (Tue,) studied this question.