Just 100 companies are responsible for 71% of human emissions. If institutions are the problem we could be letting them off the hook by focusing on individuals.

"[…] this sort of deflection of responsibility is likely what energy companies and other major corporations want: if we're pointing the finger at one another, we're not pointing it at them." (Catastrophe Ethics, p. 50)

Climate scientist Michael Mann in an interview about his book The New Climate War:

"Any time you are told a problem is your fault because you are not behaving responsibly, there is a good chance that you are being deflected from systemic solutions and policies. Blaming the individual is a tried and trusted playbook that we have seen in the past with other industries. In the 1970s, Coca Cola and the beverage industry did this very effectively to convince us we don't need regulations on waste disposal. Because of that we now have a global plastic crisis. The same tactics are evident in the gun lobby's motto, 'guns don't kill people, people kill people,' which is classic deflection.

For a UK example look at BP, which gave us the world's first individual carbon footprint calculator. Why did they do that? Because BP wanted us looking at our carbon footprint not theirs."

The idea of individual responsibility can be weaponized to prevent real climate progress.