WildAid, in partnership with China Green Carbon Foundation and supported by China Environment News Agency, and supported by Discovery Channel, has launched “Every Climate Action Counts”, a campaign aiming to inspire simple actions to reduce individual carbon footprints contributing to climate change.
In 2022, WildAid ambassador Wu Lei (Leo) led a successful awareness campaign, reaching 260 million views on Weibo with the campaign PSA receiving 109,000 forwards. In 2023, he launched a new initiative entitled "The Power is Yours", calling on young people to combat climate change together by sharingand spreading their own climate actions.
The latest campaignencourages young people to visit the interactive “Climate Action Inspiration Station” to share their own climate actions and create a custom poster for social media. Fifty-five of WildAid’s partners in China, including corporations, university researchers, NGOs, and media outlets, promoted the website on their respective social media. We have also released an updated version of the popular “Public Climate Action Handbook” and opened an offline exhibition at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing.
This handbook is not a ‘must-do’ list but a ‘diagnosis’ of the barriers to climate action, showing five obstacles: laziness, reluctance to pay more, hesitation to act, pessimism, and confusion in an exciting and lively way. It is also a “roadmap” to guide young people from ignorance to active innovation, and to see how other people around them have grown into “climate innovators”.
Research released from the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the carbon emissions generated by household consumption account for 53% of the total carbon emissions of the whole society. According to IPCC Working Group III Co-Chair Priyadarshi Shukla, having the right policies, infrastructure, and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behavior can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
- 53%
Research by the Chinese Academy of Sciences shows that the carbon emissions generated by household consumption account for 53% of the total carbon emissions of the whole society. - 40-70%
Having the right policies, infrastructure, and technology in place to enable changes to our lifestyles and behavior can result in a 40-70% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. - 260 million
Views on Weibo of Wu Lei's campaign PSA
As a cycling enthusiast, Wu Lei shared his recent experiences with extreme weather during a press event in Beijing in September 2023.
“Extreme weather has a great impact on outdoor sports such as cycling,” he said. “If climate change continues to intensify, extreme weather may become more frequent in the future, and the time we can safely engage in outdoor sports will be reduced. In the face of climate change, no one can just be a bystander, and everyone should actively participate in climate action.” He then shared his own daily climate actions, such as bringing his own bottle and saving energy.
“Along with Wu Lei and other climate ambassadors, WildAid has promoted individual climate action for over 10 years, including campaigns to lower food waste, adopt low-carbon transportation, and eliminate single-use plastics in major cities,” said John Baker, WildAid’s President and Chief Program Officer. “Taking our experience and lessons from a decade of work in China, WildAid has begun to work just as diligently to lower emissions in the United States, where we launched our first-ever campaign in January of this year. WildAid is proud to be the only organization messaging climate action on a nationwide scale in both China and the United States.”
The 2023 presss event was streamed live by 2.3 million people across China.
Through carbon reduction measures such as saving and reusing materials, not providing bottled water, and using electronic invitations. The press event produced about 2.66 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is 77 percent lower than the emissions produced by regular press conferences of the same scale.