Quantifying potential climate mitigation consumption options

This research paper synthesizes emission mitigation potentials across food, housing, transport, and other consumption domains, identifying 61 options with positive mitigation potential based on a meta-review of 53 studies.

• Approximately two-thirds of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to household consumption, with a global average of roughly 6 tCO2eq per capita.
• The highest mitigation potentials in the transport sector include living car-free, switching to battery electric vehicles, and reducing long return flights, with a median reduction potential exceeding 1.7 tCO2eq/cap. In the housing sector, shifting to renewable electricity (median 1.6 tCO2eq/cap) and refurbishment and renovation (median 0.9 tCO2eq/cap) offer the highest potential. For food, adopting a vegan diet provides the highest savings, with an average and median mitigation potential of 0.9 and 0.8 tCO2eq/cap, respectively.
• The top 10 consumption options provide a combined average mitigation potential of 9.2 tCO2eq/cap, which the authors suggest can contribute significantly to the 1.5-2°C target, especially in high-income contexts.

APA

Stockholm Environment Institute (2020). Quantifying potential climate mitigation consumption options. https://www.sei.org/publications/quantifying-potential-climate-mitigation-consumption-options/

Chicago

Stockholm Environment Institute. Quantifying potential climate mitigation consumption options. 2020. https://www.sei.org/publications/quantifying-potential-climate-mitigation-consumption-options/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Stockholm Environment Institute |title=Quantifying potential climate mitigation consumption options |date=22 April 2020 |url=https://www.sei.org/publications/quantifying-potential-climate-mitigation-consumption-options/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{stockholmenvironmentinstitute2020quantifying, author = {{Stockholm Environment Institute}}, title = {{Quantifying potential climate mitigation consumption options}}, institution = {Stockholm Environment Institute}, year = {2020}, month = apr, url = {https://www.sei.org/publications/quantifying-potential-climate-mitigation-consumption-options/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }