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The COVID-19 global pandemic has shown humanity a new way to reduce climate change, by scrapping in-person meetings and conventions.
A new Cornell University-led study shows that moving a professional conference completely online reduces its carbon footprint by 94%, and that shifting it to a hybrid model with no more than half of conventioneers online reduces its footprint by 67%.
According to the new paper, the global event and convention industry's carbon footprint is on par with that of the US.
We all attend conferences. "We fly, we drive, we check in to a hotel, give a talk, meet people, and we're done," said senior author Fengqi You, professor in energy systems engineering at Cornell University.
We looked at this problem comprehensively and behind the scenes, and we found that conventions generate a lot of carbon, consume a lot of energy, print a lot of paper, and offer a lot of food. Video conferencing uses energy and equipment. It means a lot to consider conference planning.
Adding regional conference hubs at the right locations and boosting virtual participation levels can help reduce carbon emissions.
As the number of regional hubs increases, environmental benefits become less prominent. More than 1.5 billion people traveled to attend conferences last year.
The convention industry's market size is expected to grow at a 11.2% rate over the next decade, as the number of regular, international convention events doubles every 10 years.
The growth leads to substantial greenhouse gas emissions, according to the first author of the paper.
Life cycle assessment studies show the carbon footprint per individual participant to be between 6,600 and 6,600 pounds of carbon dioxide equivalent.
When booking flights for in-person conferences, Tao and You suggest participants reduce the number of stops. Meeting organizers should take transportation modes and distances into account. Improving the energy efficiency of the information and communication technology sector and increasing the share of renewable energy in the power grids are some of the carbon reduction opportunities for virtual conferences.
You said that moving from in-person conferences to hybrid or remote events would be beneficial. We should be careful in terms of selecting hubs and determining participant levels for hybrid meetings.
The trend towards virtual and hybrid conferences may be an effective climate change mitigation strategy. There is a DOI of 10.1038/s41467-021-27251-2.
Nature Communications is a journal.
Shifting conferences online cuts carbon footprint by 94%.
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