The alarm: Disruptive climate conferences threaten the climate

Published 15 May 2024 at 08.30

Domestic. A new study from Lund shows that some of the world's most media-promoted climate scientists burn half their carbon dioxide ration in a week. Among other things, traveling to climate conferences in exciting and exotic locations of a luxury and vacation nature. This is shown by a new Swedish study.

Share the article

TwittraShare

Researchers have examined the emissions from participants at an annual international water conference between the years 2004 and 2023. The conference, which is organized by Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography, is visited by an average of 1,500 people.

In recent years it has been held in places such as Puerto Rico, Hawaii and Majorca. The average emissions per participant and conference were 1.3 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

This figure can be compared to the level of emissions per person and year that we need to get down to if we are to reach the goal according to the Paris Agreement: 2.3 tons in 2030 and 1.4 tons in 2040.

– As conference participants burn you thus more than half your annual CO2 budget in one week. The carbon dioxide emissions that the participants themselves generate when they participate in the conference become the elephant in the room that no one really wants to talk about, says Emma Kritzberg, biology professor at Lund University, in a press release.

Reducing carbon dioxide emissions from conferences requires more than superficial measures, such as a vegetarian diet – instead, the research community should turn to practical solutions to reduce flight distances. The fact that academia is serious about reducing its own emissions benefits credibility and can inspire other emission-intensive businesses, says Emma Kritzberg.

– Among the researchers who participate in these conferences, there is deep knowledge and great commitment to climate change and how it affects aquatic systems. In fact, 50 percent of all presentations last year touched on climate change. There was also a strong focus on the fact that this knowledge needs to be “implemented” and “lead to change”, not just communicated within science, says Emma Kritzberg.

The new study points to several ways to powerfully reduce carbon dioxide emissions from scientific conferences. According to the research team, it is important that efforts are directed to areas where they have the greatest effect. Emphasizing the importance of serving only vegetarian food or using electric local means of transport is in practice not very important when you put it in relation to the total emissions the conference generates.

– Arranging conferences in parallel at several locations at the same time, especially in North America, Central Europe and Asia, can significantly reduce emissions as most participants have shorter journeys. As well as not holding conferences on islands such as Mallorca, Hawaii and Puerto Rico, says Emma Kritzberg.