Abstract

AbstractThis chapter focuses on the carbon footprint of travelling to academic conferences. The cases I present are the last seven General Conferences of the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR), which are the biggest European conferences in political science, with up to 2000 participants. My estimations show that the travel-induced carbon footprint of a single conference can amount to more than 2000 tons of greenhouse gases—as much as approximately 270 UK citizens emit in a whole year. The average participant produces between 500 and 1500 kg of CO2-eq per conference round-trip. However, by applying three measures (more centrally located conference venues, the promotion of more land-bound travel and the introduction of online participation for attendees from distant locations), the carbon footprint could be reduced by 78–97 per cent. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic caused a general shift towards online conferences—the ECPR switched to a virtual event as well. Estimating the carbon footprint of this online-only conference in a more detailed manner shows that the travel-induced carbon emissions—if the event had taken place in physical attendance as originally intended—would have been between 250 and 530 times higher than those from the online conference.

Highlights

  • Transportation as an Important Field of Action Against Global WarmingScience is clear on this matter: The increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past 100 years must be stopped but must be reversed, in order to minimise global warming

  • More and more researchers, from disciplines related to climate and ecology, have questioned the practice of flying long distances to attend academic conferences in the past years (Grémillet, 2008; Holden et al, 2017). They criticise the very high GHG emissions of scientists as a result of their frequent work-induced flights, even if they otherwise lead low carbon lives (Fox et al, 2009; Grémillet, 2008). This can be framed as an ethical debate about climate justice at the individual level, with academics representing the privileged societal groups that emit much more GHG than less privileged groups which will be more intensely affected by the effects of global warming

  • Annotation: Own calculation based on data from the ECPR website. * No data available, ** 1920 standard/student registrations + 288 observer registrations cfcoach cftrain

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Summary

Introduction

Science is clear on this matter: The increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the past 100 years must be stopped but must be reversed, in order to minimise global warming. More and more researchers, from disciplines related to climate and ecology, have questioned the practice of flying long distances to attend academic conferences in the past years (Grémillet, 2008; Holden et al, 2017) They criticise the very high GHG emissions of scientists as a result of their frequent work-induced flights, even if they otherwise lead low carbon lives (Fox et al, 2009; Grémillet, 2008). This can be framed as an ethical debate about climate justice at the individual level, with academics representing the privileged societal groups that emit much more GHG than less privileged groups which will be more intensely affected by the effects of global warming.

Method
Participants Conference Papers total
A Realistic Estimation
Findings
Conclusion and Recommendations for Concrete Actions
Full Text
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