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How can we live climate-friendly lives in 2022?

Live a climate-friendly life. Illustration by Irene Danielsson.

What is the most important action one can take for the climate in 2022? Well, different actions have different effects. Try to think big. If it feels awkward to go out in the streets and demonstrate or contact politicians, take a digital course in climate action instead to get an understanding for what the most important thing you can do is.

Become an active citizen

Become an active citizen and put pressure on systems, rules and norms to change. You can do this by:

  • Think BIG! Take a free digital quick course – the Climate Leader – in how you can influence at a system level.
  • Influence your tenant owners’ association. Ask them for example to install solar panels and chargers for electric vehicles, improve insulation to lower your energy consumption, change into renewable electricity and introduce sharing services like carsharing. In addition to having a lower climate footprint, it also makes your apartment block more attractive and resilient for the future.
  • Put pressure on your workplace, your university or school. Ask if they have a climate-smart travel policy in place, if they can introduce a veggies first policy and advise them on calculating their climate footprint. We have developed a tool for companies to do that here.
  • Demonstrate – for the moment digitally. Join FridaysforFuture, Extinction Rebellion or a friend during the next climate strike  if you feel a bit new and lonely in this type of context.
  • Support End Ecocide to make large-scale environmental degradation a crime. Fracking is one example that could potentially count as ecocide. Sign petitions, make a donation so that small island nations can afford to have representatives in place at international climate negotiations or get involved in the movement locally.
  • Contact your political party and demand that they adopt a policy in line with the Paris Agreement.
  • Balance out your lifestyle and help accelerate the transition to renewable energy around the world.

Become a conscious consumer

Become a conscious consumer. Reduce your own climate footprint and gain better knowledge of which area you should focus on. What makes the biggest difference for the climate – replacing the car with a bike for distances under 3 km or recycling every single package? Below we list what has the greatest climate impact for an individual.

  • Think half. Do half of the things that have the biggest carbon footprint in your life – eat half as much red meat, fly half as many times, buy half of the apparel and footwear you normally buy and use your car half as much. Or, focus twice as much on of what has a low climate footprint. Maximize your cycling, your train holidays and your vegan eating (tips – try Veganuary). Choose ONE area to focus on and it is more likely that it will happen.
  • Become a circulator instead of a consumer. Start using sharing services for stuff and transportation.
  • Check out the performance of your financial institutions at FairFinanceGuide and use your influence to demand change. Financial institutions like banks and insurance companies can use your money to facilitate the destruction of our planet by investing in for example coal companies. Ask them to stop doing that!
  • Work less and enjoy life!

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UK Parliament unanimously passed the motion to declare environment and climate emergency

Extinction Rebellion Brussels by Nour Livia

Mayday May Day

The first of May is a day of importance every year, by celebrating labourers and the working class. But on the first of May 2019 this day made history with a massive step forward in the fight against Climate Change, as the UK Parliament declared Environment and Climate Emergency.

The votes were unanimous and this is hopefully just the first of many nations to take the same step in declaring a state of emergency. And while this is a thing to celebrate, we must not let our fists down and think this will change anything. We must put pressure on the politicians to make necessary changes. Words have no meaning without action.


But let’s back up a little.

What does it even mean to “declare a state of emergency” for a nation?

A government can declare a state of emergency during a disaster or warfare and gives the government power to take actions that they normally wouldn’t be authorized to.

When a nation declares emergency it also sends a clear signal to the citizens that there indeed is an emergency, and that changes most likely will be made to deal with said emergency.

Nowadays, a lot of legislations and changes takes a very long time to pass.

A state of emergency gives the government freedom to make important decisions faster.

Because no matter how bleak it sounds, we are indeed in the midst of an enormous crisis. The biggest crisis and challenge since the history of mankind. And we need to act fast. The people with the power to make big changes need to be able to act now. Because we are running out of time.

What now?

As mentioned before, without action this declaration means very little. Hopefully it will lead to more nations taking after the U.K. and vote to declare Climate and Ecological Emergency as well.

Extinction Rebellion and other environmental movements and activists need to keep fighting. Keep spreading the pressure on people in power, and gaining more support from the people.

Because even though it’s the people in power who can make the large changes, they won’t do it unless there’s enough pressure from the people.

And we, the people must act now.

Illustration by Ingram Pinn in Financial Times

This post is written by our blogger Evelina Utterdahl. You can read more about her here

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Introduction of our new blogger, Evelina Utterdahl

My name is Evelina Utterdahl and I will be blogging here at Go Climate Neutral from now on.

I thought an introduction would be suitable so that you know a little bit more about who’s behind the thoughts and words to come.

Picture from Tbilisi, Georgia in June 2018 to where I went from Iran through Armenia, before traveling back towards Europe. All without flying.

Born and raised in the west of Sweden and I travel full time since 2,5 years and basically everything I do has some relation to sustainability and how to fight global warming.

I do talks at events, schools or organisations of which most of them are about sustainable travel, and how to travel without flying.

Social media is also kinda my thing, and I post on my own account @earthwanderess as well as being the coordinator of the international Instagram account for Extinction Rebellion. I also do the instagram for @vihallerosspajorden who started the campaign Flight Free 2020 where I am also part of the board.

You can also expect me to be part of taking care of our Instagram account at @goclimateneutral.

A bit of background of to how I got here. It started off with me traveling a lot and with that experience started writing travel articles for an online site.

While I was aware of airplanes being bad for the environment, I had no comprehension of just how big of an impact it had. I learned the numbers while stumbling over an article and was horrified. I felt so fooled as the whole world was acting as if flying airplanes and traveling across the world for leisure was something that we could do. As if it wasn’t as bad as it actually is.

I decided to quit flying that day.

From the Swedish TV show PLUS in October 2018, where I came on and talked about how to travel sustainably

The realisation of how little information about the severity of the situation we’re in had me needing to dig deeper and find out as much as I possibly could to lower my individual impact as well as use my rather big platform on social media to spread the knowledge I collected.

I am very excited to be able to come here on this platform on Go Climate Neutral, to reach a new audience where I can share all the thoughts and information that I pick up on a daily basis.

I hope you will learn new things and hopefully that my posts will also enable you to start conversations with friends, family and colleagues.

If you have any ideas of topics you’d like me to bring up, or if you have any feedback for my posts please feel free to send me a message at:

[email protected]