Impact of Consumerism on the Environment: Putting Consumers’ Behaviours at the Center of the Climate Change Debate

Scientific evidence is creating a consensus that economic growth has placed an unsustainable burden on the physical environment. Over-consumption, resource use and the generation of pollution and waste are degrading environmental systems which people depend on either directly or indirectly for their survival and wellbeing. In the case of the most pressing environmental challenge, preventing or responding to disruptive climate change has significant implications for the global economy. Research shows that unless 2% of the global GDP is invested in responding to climate change, the negative effects are likely to affect the global economy by 20% by 2035.

The need to move to a lower carbon economy is therefore a pressing strategic challenge widely acknowledged by both policy makers and businesses. Moving towards a lower carbon economy requires a range of possible levers to be employed including technological innovation, regulation, investment, financial incentives, organizational and behavioural change. Carbon emissions are also strongly linked to the consumption of households and the choices and behaviours of individuals.

Research shows that the consumption behaviours of households account for 72% of global carbon emissions, therefore, consumers are key actors in ensuring that the 1.5 °C goal under the Paris Agreement is achieved. This is not to downplay the pressure currently placed on corporations and national governments but to highlight the fact that the possible contribution of households in climate policies is not well understood and neither are households given high priority in the current climate policy strategies.

In a highly capitalistic and globalized world, motivating consumers to adopt more sustainable consumption behaviours is an important policy goal and a source of new opportunities. Capitalism reinforces consumerism, a socio-economic order that encourages the acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts. While globalization is a phenomenon driven by technology and the movement of ideas, people, and goods. And the rules of the game under globalization don’t draw clear lines between production methods that instinctively satisfy people’s needs and production manipulated for the sake of making profits for the few. Through advertising especially online, shrewd businessmen and women have accumulated great amount of wealth by producing “things” people are led to believe they want. This has been exacerbated by online shopping where buying a new product or service is just a click away. This behavior of people buying goods/services not because they need them but because they can afford them, coupled with poor waste disposal habits harms the environment.

Research on models of environmental behaviour found that environmental knowledge together with personal values, perceived control and emotional response determined environmental behavior. However, there is a gap between how households/individuals perceive their responsibility and ability to mitigate climate change and the responsibilities and roles communicated by climate policies. Addressing this gap requires that policy measures are selected that would materialize consumption changes using either market-based or command and control approaches. Driving changes in attitudes, norms, or practices can shape consumption habits and therefore, create motives for further voluntary changes.

Very steep reductions in emissions are needed if the global community is to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, which translate into a reduction of emissions from 40 gigatons of carbon dioxide in 2020 to 5 gigatons in 2050, and eventually reach a level of “net zero” by the end of the century. These stringent targets in climate change mitigation will require changes in households and their lifestyles especially in the developed world. And for households to adapt, it will require behavioural change at individual, household and community levels.

Through behavioural change, it’s possible to mend our broken relationship with mother nature and it starts with individuals, businesses and governments knowing their impact on the environment and coming up with viable solutions to this catastrophe. When all stakeholders are made aware that climate change effects vary from food security to human security, to national and global economy, and have been a cause of conflict in many parts of the world, then maybe there will be positive response. Environmental consciousness will also require both producers and consumers to move from a narrative of production and consumption toward one of sharing and caring. Globalization has produced both winners and losers and winners have got to make a conscious decision to care for the losers. This in the long-run will address the inequality problems.

It’s high time consumers realized the power they have since they can influence the practices and policies of companies, they therefore, bare responsibility for inaction. However, this kind of approach is highly dependent on the availability of relevant information. The consumerism behavior for many people and households is due to ignorance of their carbon footprint. The growing mobilization on climate change by climate activists around the globe is good but until this activism moves beyond the streets and extends to people’s homes to influence their consumption behavior, a lot still remains to be done. Consumers have the power to force businesses and governments to stick to their commitments in the 2015 Paris Climate Accord through their consumption behavior and the vote respectively.

As concern about climate change increases especially among the young people, there is an opportunity for climate policy debates to focus on behavioural change. The international climate policy debate puts emphasis on technology and economic incentives, leaving behavioural change as an afterthought, rather than having it at the center stage. While climate change has become a key policy issue both at national and global level partly because climate activists have used securitization and positioned climate change as an existential threat. This global movement by young people if sustained is likely to force politicians and corporations to listen and act appropriately.

Promoting pro-environmental behaviours like recycling, energy saving, reduction in travel and meat consumption must be intentional and the message ought to reach all classes of people around the globe. Information on the causes and dangers of climate change should be clear and accessible such that people make climate conscious decisions in their daily lives. National governments and the international community need to put consumers’ behaviour at the heart of policy and discourses on climate change. It’s high time governments and businesses understood what can motivate households to adopt low-carbon lifestyles and technologies. If done in a proactive manner, it will put households and consumers at the center of driving the much-needed change.

By Patricia Namakula,

Head of Research and PR