The year 2007 was the year of climate euphoria. Or, depending on your point of view, climate change phobia. Chronologically, the events can be represented through the three phases in which the interim reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change were released to the public, through the debate in spring concerning the emission levels of motor vehicle fleets, through the Live Earth concert in July and now, at the end of the year, through the Climate Conference in Bali, which was to initiate the successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The climate issue, discussed in expert circles at the UNO, was brought into the public consciousness by numerous celebrities, above all by Leonardo di Caprio, who followed Al Gore's lead and produced a documentary on the topic. UN Climate Change Conference in BaliWhat brought about this activism on so many levels? It will be interesting to see if the attention given to the topic in the year 2007 has actually lead to a reduction in CO 2 emissions. There will soon be some sort of statistics in relation to this. With regard to all this upheaval, my primary concern was to differentiate between real reductions, and commercial dealings with emissions. A couple of mass events designed to save the global climate – see the Live Earth concert – were coupled with the balancing effect of the climate-killing gases which were produced, for example through "carbon offsetting" programs. Here, it was never about the avoidance of emissions. Why is this question of effective reduction so decisive? In my opinion, only a change in the behaviour of consumers will have a sustainable effect on the climate. Campaigns such as "Lights out. For our climate", some weeks ago, have only the potential of a reflexive effect on customers: How much energy am I actually wasting? Bali was the rather hazy conclusion to the year for climate activists. Where citizens are helpless against the ignorance of their governments, they are simultaneously consumers, customers with a lot of pull. If consumers change their habits, choice and products will also change.
This article was primarily published at Cicero Online.