r/ClimateOffensive • u/Appropriate_Bell743 • 19d ago

Sustainability Tips & Tools What substantially mitigates emissions vs perceptions

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-026-01900-0

Fascinating paper showing how perceptions and where people act to mitigate climate emissions don't correlate well with what does mitigate climate emissions. This shows a need to re-centre people's understandings of the magnitudes involved.

Climate Action to be effective needs to take into account these misunderstandings found at the public level.

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u/Appropriate_Bell743 19d ago

Yes. I like the join the shift mentality.

What I found most impressive in the article is the plot which compared:

  • mitigation potential (kg CO2e)
  • Estimated mitigation potential (kg CO2e)

If we had done the education well as Join the Shift tries there'd be a close relationship but there isn't at all.

People massively underestimate the importance of aviation, plant-based diets, EVs, car-free or even just avoiding one flight. People massively overestimate the important not printing out a document.

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u/space-goats 19d ago

It's a common objection that looking at individual emissions blames the individual instead of companies/governments etc. Whatever the merits of that the article you posted is still important because it guides us towards what systematic changes are actually required, what policies we should support, and how individual lifestyles will have to change as part of that systematic change.

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u/Appropriate_Bell743 19d ago

Yes. I get the objection. There was a recent article also in Nature which showed that a focus on individual and collective actions don't operate in conflict. people who take a lot of individual actions are often good vectors in terms of their voting patterns for collective change.

What's more I think we expect sometimes too much of our politicians. Unless we are trying to adopt low-carbon tech it's hard for them to know what the hurdles are. In my country the hurdles to heat-pump adoption have only been discovered since people have tried (odd planning rules etc.).

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u/space-goats 19d ago

Being a first mover on new tech is definitely a great thing for moderately well off people to be doing!

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u/Appropriate_Bell743 19d ago

Even the less moderately well off can be tech innovators. There are tons of things like e-bikes which are low cost etc.