Changes in consumption behavior can have significant emission reduction potential in society where consumption is only continuing to grow. However, raising awareness of environmental problems alone has not produced the necessary change in behavior over the years. At the heart of the geography of low-carbon lifestyles is the understanding of the multidisciplinary nature of this challenge: our lifestyles are shaped by our built, administrative, market and cultural environment, just as well these socio-technical structures, conditions and institutional contexts also define our agency as citizens. Citizens can accelerate the transition to low-carbon socio-technical systems and environments, but they are also dependent on and are locked into these structures. However, there is a lack of such comparable, quantitative data that would increase understanding of how different social, cultural, and geographical contexts effect on the dynamics of everyday life level changes.

In this study, I analyze whether timely and comparable information on citizens' personal choices, willingness, and possibilities to make low-carbon everyday choices can help understanding the characteristics of the low-carbon transition in the region in question. The study material consists of the personal emission reduction commitments of 1553 Finns, made via the Commitment2050 service owned by the Finnish Prime Minister's Office. In the service, citizens can calculate their personal carbon footprint, and then commit to concrete actions that are appropriate to their daily lives and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from consumption. Each citizen also indicates their place of residence, which enables a rough level spatial data analysis. Based on the theoretical literature, I form classifications that could be used to analyze different spatial trends from personal emission reduction plans. Cross-tabulating several different regional divisions and low-carbon choice categories seeks to reinforce a multi-scalar perspective, i.e., avoid overly simplistic causal relationships between a single site characteristic and everyday level sustainability change, ignoring other place-contextual factors.

The results are empirical observations on what kind of questions about the temporal, qualitative, and spatial state of the low-carbon transition can be met by everyday emissions reduction commitments. The data is at its best when describing where and what kind of emission reductions are being prepared. In the future, attention should be paid to the evolution of background variables and choices made over time, and to strengthening the narrative of how a better understanding of the low-carbon transition at the everyday level will contribute to tightening the social low-carbon transition.