If European countries rely only on technological progress, they will not be able to limit global warming to 1.5°. Households will also have to change their lifestyle. This "inconvenient truth" is the result of calculations made by industrial ecologist Stephanie Cap. "It's not popular news, but it shows that individual actions matter."

It would be comforting to think that technology as it is wind turbines , solar panels , batteries and green hydrogen, will save us from the worst consequences climate change . It would mean we could sit around until science gives us a solution. Unfortunately, this is not the case. As important as these new technologies are, relying on them alone will not be enough.

For the first time, Cap calculated how far technology alone would take us in the fight against climate change, with exceptions lifestyle changes . It focused on Europe, using one of the more optimistic scenarios of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as a baseline. Research is published in the magazine Sustainable Production and Consumption . (by Samuel Hanegreefs, Leiden University)