Swiss style | Pedro Almeida

Following this experiment, what benefits do you see for yourself, of living within the 2030 1.5oC targets?

Eating a healthy diet, improving my physical health by replacing motor vehicles as much as I can and walking or riding a bike, shopping local produce within the local community, for example, and making clever group purchases outsider the local community for the products we don’t have.

What are the low-carbon activities you find great and would like to make part of your life?

Cycling, walking, having a working’ electrical vehicle, not having a smartphone

   What activities seem incompatible (even with probable efficiencies) with the 1.5oC targets?

Buying new and expensive stuff, from medicine to a car to a house. When we upcycle or reuse old stuff, there is no carbon amortization to count for our carbon bill. Same for buying services. Services have a lot of carbon billing behind the scenes, generally, like going to the restaurant. And especially driving a vehicle with fóssil fuels, as petrol and diesel are.

I own 2 cars more than 20 years old, so they are amortized. Despite this, the cars spend pretty much fuel. So, there is a need to convert the cars to non-fossil fuel use. Brazil fuel runs on sugar cane alcohol, for example.

Do you think we can achieve 2030 1.5oC targets while leading quality, dignifying, healthy lives and why?

In cities yes, if the citizens change their mindset, or have already a different mindset. The most delicate issue to me is a clean and efficient mobility network to set up. Country States must intervene for this territorial planning, hopefully with private sector investors that will get a return of investment that can be called for partly from the state. We have non-resource-exhaustive solutions to produce railways, bikes, and all sorts of human-powered vehicles. Countries like Switzerland seem to have railways well prepared for the societal transition to a low carbon footprint. (See image). As for cars, it continues to be difficult, so that lithium batteries, as an example of a car part, cause a massive impact on resources exhaustion.

What are the challenges and opportunities you foresee to leading quality, dignifying, healthy lives with half (2040 1.5oC targets) and even a third (2050 1.5oC targets) of the 2030 1.5oC carbon budget?

From a 2021 point of view, with a perspective from ecoactivism since 2004, the commercial company install a new unsustainable habit faster than the time needed to change a social mindset towards 2030, 2040, or 2050 goals. So, firstly, it is especially important to achieve first the 2030 targets at the level of the household. We cannot stand still on this. Countries with CITIZEN EMPOWERMENT democracies should lead by example, either in internal policies or in external cooperations. Also, those countries should commercial ban or heavily green tax every product that internally and externally implies a big carbon footprint for its production.

For those who wish to, please share as much or as little as you want in addition to the questions above in a free format. If it can help, here are some guiding questions: “How are you feeling about 1.5-degree lifestyles”? “How would you describe this experiment to someone new”? “What else would you like to share”? 

I am feeling the movement is accurate in purpose for our times and has a big potential to influence people that are in the mindset transition to the low carbon life, or that want to learn more.

To someone new, this experiment estimates your personal carbon footprint based in a daily tracking record, for 4 weeks. Each week you are asked to reflect on your achievements and your challenges. The aim of this experiment is to show, primarily to yourself, if you are complying to the global carbon emission targets, to achieve the Paris Agreement and keep the global temperature rise at less than 1.5ºC.