Small but meaningful changes can have a big effect on reducing your carbon footprint.
Here are the goals Guardian readers are setting themselves this year, prompted by Change by Degrees’ monthly guide for making meaningful environmental change in 2025.
Back to basics
Ride my bike more, even when it is pouring with rain and very windy. Plant more trees and eat more homegrown food. Compost. Regift unwanted items and op-shop for clothes.
-Hannah, Wellington, New Zealand
Buy less. Enjoy people instead of stuff.
-Mary, Portland Maine, USA
As I’ve done for the last 50 years, eat vegetarian, use a bicycle, reduce electricity usage and learn from First Nations elders.
-David, Canberra
Use the bus more often for short trips instead of the car, try the “no spend” month in February and minimise plastics. I already compost and use solar power.
-Jan, Tullimbar, NSW
I love the idea of trying to buy nothing for an entire month. What a challenge. If I can pull that off, maybe I’ll do it for more than just one month. It’ll be great to see how creative I can get and what I learn about alternatives.
-Laurie, San Francisco, USA
Get political
With an Australian federal election coming this year. I will be writing to my local MPs starting in February. If taking climate action is new for you, I would suggest connecting with people who are involved in climate action in your local area.
Groups like Parents for Climate, the Knitting Nannas, Australian Youth Climate Coalition and Australian Conservation Foundation are great starting points. Being involved in groups like this help you connect with people with similar concerns and values and encourage you to take action and be involved.
-Felicity, Seven Hills
Provide time, expertise and effort to the environmental section of a small political party I joined (last year’s resolution) in order to identify opportunities for effective environmental legislation proposals. Increase contributions in environmental groups and media.
Examine the possibility of joining an citizen energy co-op. Join a voluntary wildfire watch in nearby forests.
-Yiorgos, Athens, Greece
Join a collective
Encourage more people to join a group of activists. Use Climate Freak approach to educate more people about climate change and risks. Talk about climate change and environmental breakdown using corporate social media. Be engaged in “clicktivism” online
-Jakub, Lake Macquarie, NSW
Create awareness about the fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty regularly. Be more organised in my climate action. Help people to understand the link between plastic, petrochemicals and the climate crisis. More self care.
-Leanne, St George, QLD
Keep pushing for a worldwide shift away from animal agriculture, one of the largest contributors to environmental destruction. Protest against fossil fuels. Reduce consumption as much as possible. We need collective action; small individual changes are good, but collective change is really needed.
-Robin, Melbourne
Convince more people that while tiny incremental lifestyle changes are fine, and make us feel good, real change will only come when we hold decision makers who keep making things worse accountable, and when destroying the environment is no longer profitable. This will only happen with persistent disruptive action. We need to be on the streets, in boardrooms and in parliament all the time.
-Catherine, Melbourne
Think local
Focus more on local solutions. Things I can do myself like composting and public transport, participating in local climate related initiatives.
-Peter, Melbourne
Buy organic when I can, explore new plant based recipes to increase plant-based family meals to five a week (from four), save up for external insulation and trade my hybrid car for a secondhand electric car.
-L Ramsay, Dublin
Cut back on meat
I am not eating any of the products of animal husbandry, which is so polluting. So no meat or dairy products. I can eat fish, preferably small fish such as sardines, which have accumulated fewer toxins. So I am not a vegetarian or a vegan, my gripe is with animal husbandry, which is cruel and polluting.
-Tony, Vicchio, Italy
Say no to AI
To avoid AI of any kind as much as possible. Learn how to delete it from apps, block, avoid as much as possible without being an ass about it. We have a very low (maybe even negative) carbon footprint in very ordinary suburbia, but the energy consumption of AI datacentres makes all these negligible by comparison.
-Linda, Coffs Harbour
Go electric
I can make the biggest difference by supporting our local Electric Homes Ballarat project - trying to ensure as many people as possible are supported to make important changes to their homes by transitioning off gas to all electric.
Buying an EV, sealing doors and windows, increasing insulation, having efficient all-electric heating, cooling, hot water and cooking along with adding solar panels, saves a fortune in power bills in the long run and are the most significant changes households can make to reduce their effect on the climate.
Making these changes can be the difference between a home that emits seven tonnes of C02 a year and one that is net zero, or actually feeding back into the grid.
-Sally, Buninyong, Victoria
