A Guide To Your New Year's Climate Resolutions

A new year brings a fresh start, and a great opportunity to build up new habits. If you’re thinking about changes you can make in 2026, consider ways you can help the environment along the way.  Experts say that the importance of global action to reduce planet-warming emissions cannot be overstated. But small, individual changes can still add up to a big impact—especially in communities.  “There is a relationship between one person doing something and then other peers or neighbors in the networks adopting those courses of action,” says Arun Agrawal, director of the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative at the University of Notre Dame. Here are five new year resolutions climate experts suggest for 2026. Consider Your Home’s Energy Sources If you’re looking to make some home improvements in 2026, consider changes to make your home more efficient. Whether it be installing a heat pump, solar panels, or even just switching out lights to LEDs. Making these changes can also help with another common new year’s goal—saving money. “Improving those elements of your home not only helps with greenhouse gas emissions and energy use, but also lowers your utility bills which is something a lot of us want,” says Angela Melidosian, assistant professor of sustainability at the George Washington University.  Reduce Your Meat Consumption Last year, nearly half of U.S. adults said starting a new diet was one of their New Year’s resolutions. Reducing the amount of meat you consume is a dietary change that can help lower your personal carbon footprint—meat production alone makes up nearly 60% of the food sector’s climate emissions. It can also benefit your health.  You don’t have to radically change your diet to have an impact, says Melidosian. “For a lot of people, it might not be realistic to become totally vegetarian, but if you’re someone who eats meat every day of the week, you could start off with picking one day of the week where you cook all vegetarian dishes,” she says. Change Your Commuting Habits If your goal is to get more exercise this year, you might be able to reduce greenhouse gas emissions alongside it. A typical passenger vehicle emits about 4.6 metric tons of CO2 per year. Swapping out one car trip for a bike ride each day can reduce the average person’s transportation-related emissions by 67%, according to research published in Science Direct. “A lot of people around New Year’s [make] resolutions about wanting to get more exercise,” says Melidosian. “So you can combine that classic ‘I want to get more exercise resolution’ with a climate goal.” Be a Conscious Consumer Americans purchase an average of 53 new clothing items a year—much of which ends up in landfills within a year of purchase. “We’re marketed to consume,” says Madhavi Venkatesan, founder and executive director of the non-profit Sustainable Practices. The majority of things people buy however, are not designed to last. “The perfect product is a planned obsolescence product.” she says. This just contributes to more waste. What’s more, many things we use on a day-to-day basis—from the straws in takeout coffee, to plastic cutlery at lunch time, or plastic water bottles are designed to be thrown away. More than 400 million metric tons of plastic is produced every year, half of which is designed to be used only once—and less than 10% is recycled. “A lot of greenhouse gasses go into the products we use,” says Melidosian. “So we can make pledges to reduce our single use plastics, for example, [by] carrying around reusable water bottles.”  Create a Disaster Response Plan Climate change is increasing the intensity and frequency of natural disasters. How that impacts you might depend on where you live—but regardless, it’s good to assess your local risks and come up with an action plan.  Being prepared involves a three step plan, says Agrawal. First, learn about the most likely climate risks that you and your community might face in the next five to 10 years. Then learn about what you can do should a disaster take place—including special considerations for family members who have special needs, like medical equipment or medication.  “Learning about what you should do should an event occur,” says Agrawal, “could be the difference between your life and your death if the event happens.”