‘The catalyst for a movement of action’. That is how founder, Sam Naef, describes The Climate App. An app with the potential to be a ‘tool for a movement of people cutting their carbon’, The Climate App is designed to utilise positive peer pressure and personal challenges to motivate individuals to cut their carbon emissions and save our planet. In order to make carbon cutting feel as easy as scrolling through Instagram, however, the team behind the app has set up a crowdfunding page to raise money for the app’s development. In a time of climate crisis, an app may be the key to a climate revolution.

Upon downloading the app, users answer a series of questions about lifestyle choices, for example, regarding their meat consumption and driving habits. From this, the app estimates the user’s carbon footprint, showing, plain and simple, their individual impact on our dying earth. Extinction Rebellion scientist Matthew Sawyer and Naef himself, equipped with a degree in physics and experience with Nasa and Airbus, calculate these estimates by utilising information from ‘scientific papers’ and the readily available climate ‘information out there’. Naef hopes these estimates will become ‘more detailed as… the amount of scientists on the team’ grows and eventually they will receive the ‘stamp of approval of a big name in science’.

The app estimates the user’s carbon footprint, showing, plain and simple, their individual impact on our dying earth.

Not only, though, does the app provide statistics of the current problem, it, too, provides solutions. ‘Duolingo style’, The Climate App provides individuals with challenges that encourage them to make small but impactful changes to their everyday lives. Challenges range from switching to a bamboo toothbrush to going flight-free. No matter how small the change may be, though, Naef wants to keep sharing their ‘main message’ that ‘every action is important’. To ensure this idea is maintained, Naef cut a potential feature where small groups of people were put into ‘leaderboards’ because they ‘sometimes make people not feel so positive’. Rather than ranking people’s ability to save the world by them opposing one another, Naef wants the world to know ‘we need to work together on this’ if we have any chance of reversing climate change.

To bring about togetherness in what can sometimes feel like an isolating fight, Naef has developed a feed feature. Like Facebook and Instagram, The Climate App will have a feed feature where users can see challenges taken up by other users, the progress friends and family are making and share their own achievements with others. This collaborative, community feel of the app relies on ‘positive peer pressure’ to create what Naef likes to call a ‘positive virtuous circle’. By posting and discussing within this feature, not only will the app showcase what people are doing but also allow for explanations and conversations about why they are making these changes. The ‘why’ is what Naef believes will be the key in the ‘movement of action’. We’ve had the movement of awareness’ he says, ‘now it’s time for action’.

This collaborative, community feel of the app relies on ‘positive peer pressure’ to create…. a ‘positive virtuous circle’.

To create the ‘movement of action’ Naef is hoping for, his aim is for The Climate App to be used by ‘about 3.5% of the U.K population, in line with Erica Chenoweth’s theory that if 3.5% of a population stand together and peacefully demand change, there will be a ‘knock-on effect’ for the entire society.  Although the numbers seem small, peaceful protests of similar numbers saw the People’s Power movement in the Philippines end the Marcos Regime and many other non-violent movements succeed. While these may have been physical protests showcasing the power of a collective, who says these numbers and ideas cannot be applied to a digitally enthused movement for climate action?

Taking action, Naef believes, is the ‘responsibility of the developed countries’ hence his aims for the app to centre around Europe, America and Asia. While having The Climate App reach the entire global population would drastically slow climate change, Naef is keeping his focus on first world countries since the carbon emissions of someone living in a developed country ‘is significantly more than someone from the developing world’. This is where the app’s feature to compare an individual’s carbon footprint to, for example, the ‘U.K average’ as well as the ‘world’s average’ helps put into perspective that our modern lifestyles, filled with consumption and waste, have incredible impacts on the planet. The Climate App helps alter our lifestyles to combat the climate crisis. The responsibility is in our hands.

Taking action… is the ‘responsibility of the developed countries’.

Unlike many organisations, brands and corporations who are green washing their labels to please the young generations genuinely concerned with the battle at hand, The Climate App wants to arm people from all walks of life with the tools to contribute to the fight. Naef suggests the app’s support is diverse with people ‘stretched [from] all areas of society’ contributing to and following the app’s progression. While many believe the warming climate is a burden the young must carry alone, despite the reality of climate change causing disaster in the present, not just the future,  Naef believes the app will help people of all ages to reduce their carbon emissions; ‘from a child to their grandparents’. As Naef suggests ‘the last thing we want to do is to be trying to sort this out by ourselves’.

The Climate App wants to arm people from all walks of life with the tools to contribute to the fight.

People’s belief in the power of collective change has been a driving factor in the app’s development, particularly amongst his volunteers and their shared ‘vision’. With ‘lots of people joining’ the team to make the ‘vision’ of a carbon cutting future into a reality, the volunteers have ‘made [The Climate App] into something’ from what ‘one year ago… was nothing’. In a year faced with a pandemic and ‘zero money’, the team behind The Climate App have still been ‘getting results’ and are well on their way to producing an app that may well start a revolution.

To start this revolution, however, The Climate App needs money because without it, the app is unable to be developed. While the pandemic allowed the team of volunteers to grow quickly since ‘a lot of people had a lot of spare time’, Naef has faced difficulties obtaining funding. But in the face of adversity, the team has adapted, and are seeking ambassadors for The Climate App. Already, Max Litchfield, Olympic swimmer for Team GB, and sustainability blogger and business owner, Eleanor Pritchard have become ambassadors and the team is constantly on the search for those willing to share and promote the app.

The main support for The Climate App is coming from the team’s crowdfunding page where they are aiming to raise 22,000 euros.

The main support for The Climate App is coming from the team’s crowdfunding page where they are aiming to raise 22,000 euros to get the app up and running. So far, the page has raised just over 6000 euros and with less than a month until their target is due, Naef fears an extension may be necessary. Naef is pleading ‘for anyone interested in The Climate App [to] get involved’, whether it’s ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’, ‘showing’ the app to friends, family or anyone who might be interested, or most importantly, donating to the crowdfunding campaign. Once again ‘every action is important’.

With support, the app has the potential to save the planet, the question is does humanity?

You can watch the crowdfunding video here: https://igg.me/at/theclimateapp

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