Lifestyle carbon footprints and changes in lifestyles to limit global warming to 1.5 °C, and ways forward for related research

• Published in: Sustainability science Vol. 16; no. 6; pp. 2087 - 2099
• Main Authors: Koide, Ryu, Lettenmeier, Michael, Akenji, Lewis, Toivio, Viivi, Amellina, Aryanie, Khodke, Aditi, Watabe, Atsushi, Kojima, Satoshi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Tokyo Springer Japan 01.11.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Carbon; Carbon footprint; Case Report; Climate change; Climate Change Management and Policy; Earth and Environmental Science; Environment; Environmental Economics; Environmental impact; Environmental Management; Footprint analysis; Global warming; Landscape Ecology; Lifestyles; Public Health; Sustainability science; Sustainable Development; Sustainable Production and Consumption; Paris agreement; Household consumption; Carbon footprints; Climate change mitigation; Sustainable lifestyles
• ISSN: 1862-4065; 1862-4057
• DOI: 10.1007/s11625-021-01018-6

This paper presents an approach for assessing lifestyle carbon footprints and lifestyle change options aimed at achieving the 1.5 °C climate goal and facilitating the transition to decarbonized lifestyles through stakeholder participatory research. Using data on Finland and Japan it shows potential impacts of reducing carbon footprints through changes in lifestyles for around 30 options covering food, housing, and mobility domains, in comparison with the 2030 and 2050 per-capita targets (2.5–3.2 tCO 2 e by 2030; 0.7–1.4 tCO 2 e by 2050). It discusses research opportunities for expanding the footprint-based quantitative analysis to incorporate subnational analysis, living lab, and scenario development aiming at advancing sustainability science on the transition to decarbonized lifestyles.