Quantifying the potential for climate change mitigation of consumption options

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p> <jats:bold>Background.</jats:bold> Around two-thirds of global GHG emissions are directly and indirectly linked to household consumption, with a global average of about 6 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap. The average per capita carbon footprint of North America and Europe amount to 13.4 and 7.5 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap, respectively, while that of Africa and the Middle East—to 1.7 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap on average. Changes in consumption patterns to low-carbon alternatives therefore present a great and urgently required potential for emission reductions. In this paper, we synthesize emission mitigation potentials across the consumption domains of food, housing, transport and other consumption. <jats:bold>Methods.</jats:bold> We systematically screened 6990 records in the Web of Science Core Collections and Scopus. Searches were restricted to (1) reviews of lifecycle assessment studies and (2) multiregional input-output studies of household consumption, published after 2011 in English. We selected against pre-determined eligibility criteria and quantitatively synthesized findings from 53 studies in a meta-review. We identified 771 original options, which we summarized and presented in 61 consumption options with a positive mitigation potential. We used a fixed-effects model to explore the role of contextual factors (geographical, technical and socio-demographic factors) for the outcome variable (mitigation potential per capita) within consumption options. <jats:bold>Results and discussion.</jats:bold> We establish consumption options with a high mitigation potential measured in tons of CO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/capita/yr. For transport, the options with the highest mitigation potential include living car-free, shifting to a battery electric vehicle, and reducing flying by a long return flight with a median reduction potential of more than 1.7 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap. In the context of food, the highest carbon savings come from dietary changes, particularly an adoption of vegan diet with an average and median mitigation potential of 0.9 and 0.8 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap, respectively. Shifting to renewable electricity and refurbishment and renovation are the options with the highest mitigation potential in the housing domain, with medians at 1.6 and 0.9 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap, respectively. We find that the top ten consumption options together yield an average mitigation potential of 9.2 tCO<jats:sub>2</jats:sub>eq/cap, indicating substantial contributions towards achieving the 1.5 °C–2 °C target, particularly in high-income context.</jats:p>