Five powerful ways to take climate action

When the climate headlines are relentless, it can be hard to know what to do about it all. 

This year, Europe has sweltered through extraordinary heatwaves. In August, a catastrophic glacier and rock collapse in the Himalayas sent a devastating flood through communities in Nepal and Tibet. A warming climate is making the conditions behind events like these more likely or more severe. The UN has confirmed that Earth is set to surpass the 1.5°C warming tipping point – though it’s still possible to bring temperatures back down in the future.  

It’s confronting. And sometimes, the climate crisis can feel so enormous that remembering your reusable cup seems almost laughably small. 

So here’s the good news: you have more power than you might think. You’re not just someone deciding what goes in the recycling bin. You’re a voter. A commuter. Someone who eats dinner. Someone who uses electricity. Someone whose money is invested through super. 

And across all those parts of your life, there are opportunities to make choices that help build a safer, more sustainable future. 

We’re not talking about doing all the things, all the time. Nobody needs ‘constant climate action’ added to an already overflowing mental load. 

Instead, it’s about knowing where you can have meaningful influence, and choosing what actually works for your life. 

Here are five places to start. 

Transport is a significant source of Australia’s emissions, which makes the way we move around an important part of climate action. 

But we live in Australia. Distances are huge, public transport isn’t equally accessible everywhere and plenty of us genuinely need a car. 

So, forget the all-or-nothing approach. Maybe there are short journeys you can walk or cycle. Maybe public transport works for the commute, but not school pick-up. If you have to drive everywhere, you might combine several errands into one trip. Going to another city? Consider the train instead of flying. Or look at EV options when your current car eventually needs replacing. 

Even if none of that works for you, that’s useful information too. 

Where you live, whether you feel safe walking or cycling, your disability or accessibility needs, caring responsibilities, work and the transport infrastructure around you all shape the choices available. Climate solutions work better when they recognise real lives, instead of imagining everyone has the same options. 

Personal choices can reduce emissions, but better public transport, safer walking and cycling infrastructure and accessible low-emissions options can make those choices possible for many more people. That’s why individual and collective action belong together. 

You don’t gotta turn vegan by Tuesday. But if your plate is the stage for your creations, make veggies the star. Eating more plant-based food can be one practical way to reduce the climate footprint of your diet. Research shows that diets with more plant foods generally produce fewer greenhouse gas emissions than those with large amounts of meat, particularly beef and lamb. 

The emphasis here is more plants, not perfection. 

Try lentils in your usual bolognese. Give tofu another chance after that one deeply disappointing experience in 2014 (there’s lots of ways to cook it into a deliciously crispy or chewy protein pillow – or even a creamy dessert). Add a meat-free dinner to the weekly rotation. Make the vegetables the main event rather than the sad side dish. 

And use what you’ve already got. Reducing food waste means fewer resources going into food that ultimately ends up in the bin. Excess veg can often go into a juicer or air fryer for a nutrient hit.  

There’s a mental-load caveat here, though. In many households, changing the way a family eats can mean someone has to research recipes, remember ingredients, shop differently and persuade everyone else to actually eat their chickpeas. Climate action shouldn’t automatically become another invisible job for one person. 

Share the planning. Share the cooking. Share the dishes while you’re at it. 

A more plant-rich dinner doesn’t need to be expensive, photogenic or worthy of its own Instagram account. Sometimes it’s beans on toast. Still counts. 

Our homes are another place where everyday decisions can add up. Depending on your budget and whether you rent or own, that could mean choosing an electricity plan backed by renewable energy, improving insulation and draught-proofing, installing rooftop solar, or replacing old gas appliances with efficient electric alternatives when they reach the end of their useful life. 

The words when they reach the end of their useful life are doing some work there. 

You don’t need to throw out a perfectly functional appliance in the name of sustainability. But when the hot-water system gives up or the stove finally calls it a day, that can be a good moment to consider a more efficient electric option. 

Of course, homeowners generally have more control over these decisions than renters. And upgrades like solar, insulation and efficient heating can cost serious money. 

If you rent, you can still ask for energy-efficiency improvements, investigate the electricity choices available to you, raise issues through strata where relevant and support stronger minimum energy standards for rental homes. 

And if you share a household, deciding how the home is powered doesn’t need to become one person’s research project. Put it on the shared to-do list. 

Not every meaningful climate action happens at home. Some of the biggest decisions affecting emissions are made by governments, companies, workplaces and financial institutions. Which means one of the most powerful things we can do is expect more from them. 

You can vote with climate policy in mind. Contact your local MP. Ask your workplace what it’s doing to decarbonise its operations. Support organisations pushing for change. Ask businesses to substantiate their sustainability claims instead of accepting a green label at face value. 

Systems change when enough people challenge what’s normal, demand something better and make inaction harder to defend. 

And there’s another reason inclusive climate policy matters. UN Women reports that existing inequalities mean women and girls globally can face greater risks to their livelihoods, health and safety as the climate changes, with women often carrying greater responsibility for securing food, water and fuel in communities where these resources are becoming harder to access. 

A safer climate is an equity issue, too. 

This one can be easy to miss. Your super is all invested somewhere. 

While changing an investment can’t be converted into a simple personal emissions saving in the same way as driving fewer kilometres, investment decisions can help determine where capital is allocated across the economy, directing it towards – or away from – different companies and industries.  

Super funds invest enormous pools of long-term retirement savings across different companies and industries. Their decisions about where to invest, what to exclude and how to engage with companies play a role in how capital is allocated. 

So take a look under the bonnet of your super. 

If a super fund describes itself as ‘green’, ‘responsible’ or ‘ethical’, don’t take its word for it. Find out what those words actually mean. Look at its investment approach and holdings where they’re available. Check its exclusions. See how it approaches climate-related risks and opportunities.  

At Verve Super, all of our investment options are sustainably screened, because we believe members should be able to invest in a more equitable and sustainable future. You can look at the investment approach, including what Verve’s sustainable options invest in and exclude, to understand what that means in practice. 

Reusable coffee cups, repairing things, buying second-hand, composting, cutting down waste and remembering the reusable bags before you reach the supermarket checkout are all worthwhile. Keep up the good work, sisters. 

But don’t let the focus on small consumer choices distract us from the bigger levers available. How we travel. What we eat. How our homes are powered. What we ask of governments and businesses. Where our money is invested. 

These choices have different kinds of influence. Some can directly reduce emissions. Others help shift the systems that determine emissions at a much bigger scale. 

This has got to work for your life, and nobody can do everything. But everyone can do something. Pick the things that make sense for your circumstances. Make one change. Ask one question. Have one conversation. Then build from there. 

A safer, fairer and more sustainable future won’t be created by a tiny group of perfectly sustainable people. It will take millions of us making practical changes, expecting better from the institutions around us and using the power we already have - for ourselves, for our communities and for the generations coming after us. 

You’re powerful. With Verve, so is your super.