Lifestyles for climate justice

A change in consumption patterns of the rich is as essential for climate mitigation as supply-side innovations and even more crucial for climate justice

A recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)(1) has pointed out that climate change has caused substantial damages, and increasingly irreversible losses, in terrestrial, freshwater and coastal, and open ocean marine ecosystems. The policy approach to tackling this has tended to concentrate on supply-side changes, involving decarbonising production, particularly of electricity and energy-efficient appliances.