Asklemmy

Spending and consumning less could help more. Espicially gas and meat.

As a few people have said, buying something like solar panels, or the deposit on an electric car would probably be the best - reducing your impact is probably the most you can do.

The other option could be green investment.... They do exist, ignore 'transitional energy' funds (90% oil majors), look at the individual shares that any fund that looks interesting. I have some money in EdenTree funds. That way your money is hopefully helping do good, while (hopefully) growing so you can do something that will have a bigger personal effect.

Depends on where you live and your situation. You either limit your personal CO2 or the society's CO2 or even both. Most of my suggestions will make or save you money over time.

For personal you could do these, most of these will pay themselves back within 10 years in savings.

• Swap gas stove for induction stove
• Swap a gas boiler to heat pump + electric boiler
• Buy solar panels for the roof and/or battery
• Heat pump for domestic heating for colder regions.
• Home insulation such as triple glass windows
• For hot regions getting an awning for the windows facing the sun goes a long way.
• Selling car to buy EV (CO2 neutral at 1 year, less CO2 after that)
• Buying an E-bike if you have short trips and would like to bike more (CO2 negative almost instantly if you prevent car trips)

Otherwise if you don't feel like any of those investing in solar companies or battery production companies will make it easier for them to finance expansions to their operations and maybe even make you some money along the way.

If you live in the UK or applicable countries getting in on Octopus energy co-op energy production is a good way to invest the money and reduce CO2 at the same time.

Don't forget that an easy way to limit your carbon footprint is free. Notably plastics, aluminum, steel, other metals, concrete and beef.

To limit society's footprint you can show up to city Council meetings and advocate for bike paths and public transport which really goes a long way. Showing up with a couple of buddies, making them talk and buying beer for them after in one of the most cost effective ways to stop climate change. Often city council members just need some people to back them up when proposing the CO2 negative urban planning improvements.

Stopping climate change is all about taking small steps towards the solution, asking this question on lemmy is a great start.

Your time and energy is far more valuable than your money.

I would recommend using that money as an emergency fund, and getting involved with an activist organization working to stop climate change. There are a wide range of them, with tactics ranging from legislative pressure to property destruction and civil disobedience. Believe it or not, there are lots of small local problems that a small group can meaningfully impact, and will add up.

While there are systemic problems that cannot be solved by an individual, they can be solved by collective organization. You have to be part of that collective if you want to stop climate change.

Children of Kali

Send it to me, I’ll grow some trees and hemp and shit.

Well, a certain cadre of income is responsible for the lion's share of western emissions. Maybe you could use that money to "influence" them.

I've heard a statistic that goes something like: If you were to just not exist, you would only save about 1 second worth of emissions globally. Whatever individual action you do to reduce emissions from your lifestyle only go so far.

And like others have mentioned, there are the other, less legal forms of direct action.

Invest it into a mutual fund fighting climate change. My bank has one. I guess many banks do. Some relevant terms in their fund names: fossil-free, climate, forest, sustainable agriculture.

Several funds in my bank have ESG in the name.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental,_social,_and_governance

Climate change is tied to capitalism. Use it to run for office.

Probably planting trees as effectively it's free to scatter seeds you find.

Buy second hand, don't buy new unless you know that the company is trying to solve climate change. Example, at Honolulu there's a company that is setting up water filling stations on some hotels and providing these hotels with aluminum bottles for the folks staying in the hotel so hotels can provide water to their guests and stop plastic pollution.

Put it in a bank that doesn't invest your money into the wrong stuff. In fact a bank can loan more money than it has, but there's a ratio set by law. So for example that could effectively be 30k in arbitrary investments.

If you want to spend it, I'd buy a good bicycle or get my home isolated or sum like that. You could get cooking lessons and proper cookware and stay away from processed foods that generate tons of waste. If you have the space you could grow your own vegetables and have chickens, which eat bio waste. Basically reduce what you buy. You could get tools and learn how to fix things if that's more up your alley. For example I've fixed my Sennheiser headphones several times, but it did need some investment in tools. You could also donate it to a repair café.

Put that money in stocks or ETFs that align with your climate goals. You don’t even have to dig too deep to find ones that meet your needs. Much digital ink has been spilled on the topic. Just find one or two you like and go for it.

In a general sense, put the money where you want change to happen in this version of reality.

Plant a fuckload of protected species trees