This report looks at a broad range of policies that could have potential direct and supply chain impacts on the level of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at a national level. It highlights that consumer initiatives can have a big effect on embodied carbon imports, in addition to domestic impacts, and emphasises that broader assessments of behavioural change often neglect strategies to affect the supply chain and do not yet consider the lifecycle assessment of GHG emissions that more narrow studies of specific strategies have shown to be important. Change in consumer behaviour can influence global production recipes, drive demand for lower-carbon products, and alter the level and composition of global consumption.
While behavioural change is often discussed as a potentially powerful driver of GHG reductions, comprehensive assessments of the opportunities from such measures have remained elusive. This study, therefore, models the lifecycle GHG reductions of an economy-wide implementation of bottom-up measures by integrating bottom-up information on the lifecycle of the products in question and the market potential of the measures into a global multi-regional input-output model developed for footprint analysis. The report shows that food, transport, and building efficiency are crucial areas where consumer behaviour can make a substantial difference in reducing national carbon footprints.