Enabling 1.5 °C lifestyles in Europe: lifestyle options and structural change for transformation

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.