If we want to reach “net zero greenhouse gas emissions” by 2050, we need to drastically change our life standards. Individuals can give a substantial contribution even without waiting for the fullest activation of regulatory frameworks: our example shows that reductions of the individual emissions of about 20% are achievable without a drastic change in their habits. But more substantial reductions beyond 20% require political decisions and investments that would ‘enable’ them to achieve them. Single individuals constitute a sort of immense “climate innovation agent”, promoting the ever-wider growth and consolidation of a global public sphere, which must be capable of directing politics towards such changes, or, above all, facilitating the acceptance of measures in this direction and giving voice to systemic and effective criticisms, where such measures – which are now widely evident – are not or are too weakly adopted. Institutions and politics must support them in adopting the changes required to achieve net zero emissions. In this essay, it is first introduced the current state of the Earth's climate (§ 1). Then, the key facts leading to the conclusion that human activities are the main cause of climate change are summarized, and the role that individual choices can lead to a reduction in emissions is analysed (§ 2). There are several obstacles that must be overcome to reduce the emissions – many of a political nature above all – and the essay examines various risks of ineffectiveness that could constellate a path that is complex and full of old and new difficulties (§ 3). The work carefully examines some proposals on the actual advantages that could occur if institutions enable individuals to decide for a global change in emission behaviours (§ 4). A multifaceted strategy, aimed at directing the individual's motivation towards a global change in consumption behaviour and energy saving, can lead to the required change (§ 5). Such a strategy requires immediate and effective policy actions at institutional level, to enable the structural change we need and which the ongoing climate change, mainly caused by man, requires us to implement.
