Consumers cannot decarbonize the economy by their choice because fossil fuels are used in everything at some point in their value chain. It’s not about will yo

Consumers cannot decarbonize the economy by their choice because fossil fuels are used in everything at some point in their value chain. It’s not about will you fly or take the train. The food we eat, the clothes we wear - everything has fossil fuel inputs at some point. One can choose to consume less. Buy second hand etc. Then the fossil inputs in mining, transport, farming and whatnot will not be repeated. Consumer choice electricity? You can’t choose non-fossil based electricity unless someone has invested large amounts of capital in e.g wind power. The only thing that can affect things this large is industrial policy which again in democratic countries needs political support. That’s why consumer carbon footprint is gaslighting. The individual choise does not exist, and trying to spin the carbon economy narrative towards consumer responsibility was a backhanded attempt to delay the energy transition which only the war in Ukraine launched to a better trajectory. I was not suggesting people spend all of their money planting trees. I was thinking it in the context that sometimes people want to do something symbolic with extra cash that makes them feel better. It was not intended as a moral imperitive.