1.5° Lifestyles Project: What Germany Needs to Do for the Climate Transition

Drawing on almost four years of research across Europe, the project findings identify key barriers that hinder sustainable transformations and offer actionable strategies for individuals, policymakers, businesses and civil society organisations in pursuit of sustainable lifestyles and societies.

Impactful lifestyle choices

The research identifies high-impact lifestyle changes across 4 domains: mobility, housing, nutrition, and leisure. Transitioning away from private, especially fossil-fueled cars can significantly cut personal emissions and improve wellbeing. In housing, replacing fossil-fuel-based heating with heat pumps or renewable systems, improving insulation and opting for smaller and more energy efficient living spaces are essential steps. Adopting plant-based diets or significantly reducing meat and dairy consumption can dramatically lower food-related emissions. Finally, reducing air travel in favor of public transport can offers substantial climate benefits, particularly for frequent flyers.

Addressing structural barriers

The research highlights seven systemic barriers as significant obstacles to sustainability. Chief among these is the undifferentiated pursuit of growth, and with it the prioritisation of GDP over environmental and social wellbeing, which is fuelling unsustainable consumption. In addition, policies lack stringency, integration and coherence, often creating silos that hamper efforts towards transformative policy. Powerful vested interests, particularly from industries reliant on fossil fuels, resist change, while environmental and social costs remain externalized, allowing unsustainable choices to remain cheaper and more accessible.

Cultural narratives that equate material wealth with success further complicate the shift toward sustainable lifestyles. Social inequity exacerbates these challenges, limiting access to resources necessary for meaningful lifestyle changes. Finally, a lack of education and skills on sustainability undermines public and institutional capacity to act effectively.

Strategies for Transformation

Recognizing the challenges of promoting climate and sustainability efforts in today's crisis-filled and increasingly divided political environment, the EU 1.5° Lifestyles Project suggests four timely and resilient strategies to overcome these obstacles and drive meaningful lifestyle changes. First, it calls for an integrative pursuit of eco-social justice. Addressing inequities through policies such as progressive taxation, universal access to sustainable resources, and support for vulnerable populations ensures that no one is left behind in the transition to 1.5° lifestyles.

Second, and linked to the focus on eco-social justice, the project stresses the importance of building new coalitions among relevant stakeholders. Alliances across environmental and social actors, involving government, civil society, and business sectors, can drive collective action and counterbalance the influence of vested interests.

Third, the project findings underscore the need for targeted communication and refinement of societal narratives. Through education, media campaigns and storytelling, the alignment of sustainable lifestyles with values of community, health, and environmental harmony must be shown.

Finally, the project shows the need to redefine and reorganize responsibility to enable its sharing by citizens, governments, civil society organisations, and businesses. The current "responsibility ping-pong," where each actor deflects responsibility onto others, precludes an effective pursuit of sustainable futures. Transparency, mandates and instruments for impact assessments can support this shift.

Regional insights

The effectiveness of these changes varies by country. The project zoomed in on 5 EU countries, each representative of a region or economy. Project results highlight country differences resulting from mobility and housing infrastructures, cultural traditions in food, awareness and information, as well as the role of historical experiences. 

A collaborative call to Action

“These findings highlight that achieving the 1.5°C target is not solely about individual actions but requires systemic transformation across sectors,” says Doris Fuchs, lead researcher at the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) – Helmholtz Centre Potsdam. “Success depends on focusing on eco-social justice and forming strong partnerships that involve citizens and stakeholders to challenge those supporting the unsustainable status quo.”

The results of the 1.5°Lifestyles project have been incorporated into six policy briefs, which you can download here.

Next steps

In its final year, the EU 1.5° Lifestyles Project is focusing on co-creating targeted recommendations with stakeholders and disseminating practical guidance for citizens and decision-makers. These efforts aim to ensure that the pathways outlined in the report are actionable and widely adopted.

About the EU 1.5° Lifestyles project

Over the past four years, the project has provided insights into sustainable living and concrete options for action to achieve the climate targets. With a focus on mobility, housing, food and leisure, studies resulting from the project offer actionable solutions tailored to the needs of the five countries studied. In the final year of the project, the focus is on jointly developing tailored recommendations and providing practical tools for change.

More on the 1.5°Lifestyles website