Why individual choices do matter for climate action

The high-profile decision by Greta Thunberg to travel to New York by boat for the UN Climate Action Summit highlights a stark reality. Our individual decisions, such as flying or eating meat, do make a collective difference in terms of climate impact.

Recently, some scientists have argued that climate action should primarily be about systemic change, rather than individual lifestyle change. Climate scientist Michael Mann recently argued “we need systemic changes that will reduce everyone’s carbon footprint, whether or not they care”.