Evaluating features of scientific conferences: A call for improvements

Sarvenaz Sarabipour; Benjamin Schwessinger; Fiona N. Mumoki; Aneth D. Mwakilili; Aziz Khan; Humberto J. Debat; Pablo J. Sáez; Samantha Seah; Tomislav Mestrovic

Business-related air travel by academics at universities continues to grow, increasing by 33% at a single institution in the last decade, reaching over 75,000,000 miles flown by their academics in one year (117). Greenhouse gas emissions caused by business trips can make up 60% of the total university greenhouse gas emissions with air travel responsible for up to 94% of the institutional travel-related emissions (118) . Institutional practices should shift to mandate severe reductions in academic air travel as these changes will significantly reduce the academic carbon footprint. As researchers re-evaluate their practices, it is essential that other key stakeholders such as academic associations, scientific societies and funding agencies coordinate and mandate funding to only organize academic conferences in ways that require less flying. At many institutions and disciplines, scholars are granted tenure and promotions based in part on the number of research presentations they make at professional conferences (119-122). Furthermore, as postdoctoral and tenure-track jobs are scarce in many academic disciplines, ECRs face mounting pressure to attend conferences in order to network with potential colleagues. Changes can also be expected in funding and promotion requirements so that tenure-track academics do not have to choose between delivering an international talk and receiving a grant or tenure promotion. This will in turn encourage a culture of academic research that is less reliant on traveling. A number of research institutions and funders have implemented a carbon tax on air travel emissions caused by academic flying (77, 78) ; some institutions have made it compulsory to travel by train rather than plane if the travel is less than 4-5 hours by train (123). Funds from a carbon tax on ground travel can also be used to fund research that could fight against the climate crisis (117). Although institutions can estimate total emissions and buy offsets (for example paying for renewable energy or other programs designed to reduce emissions) (117), the damaging impact of researchers flying on climate and living ecosystems are irreversible (124, 125, 151) and the scale of the efforts and cost to actually offset emissions from flying may be prohibitively high (151). Regional conferences and digital or virtual conferences are however more effective environmentally sustainable solutions in reducing the frequency of academic air travel compared to carbon offsets (60) .