New Year, New Me: How you can help to mitigate Climate Change

For many of us, a year came to an end, that we had imagined quite differently. Probably few would have thought that the pandemic would still restrict us so much at the turn of the year. In all the hustle and bustle surrounding the pandemic, it is therefore not surprising that other topics had to give way to the Coronavirus. So today, right after New Year, I would like to raise awareness once again for one of these issues: Climate change.

Looking at the development this year, we, unfortunately, have to note that CO2 emissions have almost returned to pre-pandemic levels. Apart from large corporations with high emissions, every individual has at least a moral duty to make a contribution to society. The basic step towards a more climate-friendly lifestyle is to avoid emissions. Everyone can help, for example by using green electricity or occasionally using a bicycle instead of a car. Despite this, it is almost impossible to avoid all emissions. For example, if you depend on your car or travel a lot for work, you can set yourself the goal of reducing unavoidable emissions as much as possible. A simple tip, for example, is to reduce the room temperature by one degree during the heating season.

If you follow all these points, you have already made a big contribution to the fight against climate change and deserve respect for it. For all those who are already climate-friendly, however, there is a relatively new and effective way to reduce their ecological footprint: CO2 compensation. Companies such as for tomorrow calculate personal emissions at the beginning and compensate for them by planting trees and buying certificates from the EU Emissions Trading Scheme. For example, 10 tonnes of CO2 correspond to 20 newly planted trees and the shutdown of a coal-fired power plant for 7 minutes. According to a study by the Universities of Kassel and Hamburg, voluntary offsetting is, therefore, an effective way of compensating for emissions that are difficult to avoid.