Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27

Abstract

Addressing the large carbon footprint of conferences such as the UN Climate Change Convention Conference of the Parties (COP) will be important for maintaining public confidence in climate policy. Transparency is also a vital aspect of creating equitable outcomes in climate policies, as often those most likely to be affected or who are able to create change on the ground are often unable to attend in person because of the high financial costs as well as having a large carbon footprint. The selection of host locations for the regular meetings of the UN Climate Change Convention is based on a rotation in amongst the five UN regions, which for 2022 is Africa. Here, we present UCL’s own carbon footprint calculator and use it to weigh the benefits of certain modes of transport to the 2021 COP 26 in Glasgow, UK and the 2022 COP 27 to be held in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The calculator demonstrates the well-known carbon-efficiency of coach and rail over flights, but shows that these benefits are only partly mitigated in the case of COP 27 due to insufficient transport links from Europe to the conference location. However, we also highlight some of the benefits of hosting a COP in the global South, particularly in the context of climate justice. Incorporating these principles into the calculator, we invite visitors to COP this year to carefully consider their options for carbon offsetting and how the tenets of climate justice could be integrated into the carbon accounting framework.

Navigating the Climate Conferences: Comparing the Carbon Footprint of Private Jet Travel and Other Modes of Transport to COP28

“…We then employ a carbon footprint calculator to assess the environmental impact of different transport modes to COP28, evaluating the carbon footprint of private jet travel. The study utilises the UCL carbon footprint calculator created in 2022 to calculate the carbon footprint for travel from the United Kingdom to COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh (14). The calculator was developed to make users better informed about transport choices when travelling internationally, provide open-source data and calculations to promote transparency in carbon-footprint calculators, encourage virtual attendance, and offer best practices in carbon offsetting.…”

“…The choice of these waypoints is based on rail accessibility and the availability of a direct flight to Dubai. The travel time and carbon footprint are presented in the results for each route (14).…”

“…International flight routes were identified using FlightConnections and car, coach and rail data sourced through the Google Maps API to generate distances (14). Flight emissions include a multiplier of 1.9 to account for the indirect effects of air travel.…”

“…Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have been converted to carbon dioxide equivalents (CO 2 e) to account for the different warming effects of various GHG using the Global Warming Potential (GWP) factors provided in the IPCC's Sixth Assessment Report (23,24). Barnsley et al (2022) provide an overview of the carbon footprint tool and further details on the calculation of flight, car, coach and train GHG emissions.…”

Digital media’s portrayal of climate change challenges during COP27 climate summit

“…However, this requires awareness of what is unacceptable and what is acceptable. Digital media protecting climate activists from intimidation and threats around the world (Barnsley et al, 2022). The conference was leading to a number of agreements being made.…”