Carbon footprint estimate

Nice, December 22, 2020.
 
 
We used a tool developed by Didier Barret (https://travel-footprint-calculator.irap.omp.eu/) to estimate the carbon footprint associated with the WFS2020 workshop, had it been held in Nice as originally planned. We used the registration and slack channel to establish a list of participants and their city of origin and found that the travel CO2 footprint associated with the 146 participants was:
 
 
There is a large uncertainty as this does not include CO2 emissions associated with lodging and local transportation. We also see that a large fraction of the footprint is associated with a few long distance trips. If we limit the participants to a 3000km radius, the CO2 footprint decreases to:
 
 
We tried to compute a comparative estimate of the CO2 associated with a virtual meeting, but this is extremely difficult due to many unknowns on the amount of data sent back and forth during the workshop. However, using rough approximations (50W/person for 4h/day during three days), we find values between:
3 and 90 CO2*kg* equivalent.
 
Thus despite the large error bars, the impact on emissions is orders of magnitude less.
 
Virtual meetings undoubtedly have their drawbacks in terms of engagement, but considering the substantial CO2 emission savings, it is worth considering different formats for our large, international conferences, maybe partly online and/or with local hubs on each continent.
 
Mamadou N'Diaye and Olivier Lai
Online user: 10 Privacy
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