The Carbon Cost of Travel to a Medical Conference: Modelling the Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology

Abstract

Objectives We estimated and compared the travel related carbon emissions of the annual meeting of the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology between the two most common geographical locations of the meeting. Methods We modelled the car, train and flight travel journey of each registrant to two annual meetings. One was held in Toronto, close to where the majority of Gastroenterogists live, the other in Banff in the west of the country. We used validated carbon emission outputs per kilometer of travel. Results The average per capita distance travelled to the Toronto meeting was 2845 km, resulting in 0.540 tonnes (t) of CO2equivalent (CO2e) emitted per person. When the meeting was held in Banff emissions were 41% higher than those in Toronto with an average distance travelled of 3949 km and 0.760t of CO2e emitted per person. Almost all of the travel related carbon emissions for both meetings were generated by flying. Conclusions Even when held close to the largest population centre, there is a large environmental impact from travel to annual meetings. Importantly, choice of meeting location has a very big impact on difference in carbon emissions. Societies need to consider the site of meetings and reduce the number of in-person attendees if they wish to reduce their carbon footprint. Hybrid models participants should be considered. Our analysis also suggests, other medical societies who wish to model their annual meetings can use a simplified model, using flying distance only, to estimate travel-related emissions.

Climate change: a survey of global gastroenterology society leadership

“…For example, many national societies derive income from annual meetings, which helps support key services they provide to their members, but which for many may have the largest proportional carbon impact within their organisations. The meeting attendance generates income from pharmaceutical and device industry support but also increases travel-related emissions, often from air travel, which can be very significant 17. Notably, over a quarter of GI society leaders in this survey were willing to consider carbon offsets and 70% have plans to move to hybrid models for their annual meeting suggesting that openness to change is already beginning.…”

Klimakrise: Handlungsspielräume in der Gastroenterologie

“…Wissenschaftlicher überregionaler und internationaler Austausch ist auch im medizinischen Bereich unverzichtbar. Die Teilnehmer an internationalen Konferenzen in Präsenz hinterlassen dabei bei der Anreise mit dem Flugzeug einen erheblichen CO2-Fußabdruck [15]. Dieser kann durch eine geeignete, zentrale Wahl des Veranstaltungsortes, durch Steigung der Attraktivität der Anreise mit dem Zug über geeignete finanzielle Anreize und nicht zuletzt durch hybride Kongress-Formate, die seit der Corona-Pandemie in ansprechender Qualität umgesetzt werden können, erheblich verringert werden [15].…”

“…Die Teilnehmer an internationalen Konferenzen in Präsenz hinterlassen dabei bei der Anreise mit dem Flugzeug einen erheblichen CO2-Fußabdruck [15]. Dieser kann durch eine geeignete, zentrale Wahl des Veranstaltungsortes, durch Steigung der Attraktivität der Anreise mit dem Zug über geeignete finanzielle Anreize und nicht zuletzt durch hybride Kongress-Formate, die seit der Corona-Pandemie in ansprechender Qualität umgesetzt werden können, erheblich verringert werden [15]. Hier sind insbesondere die Veranstalter einschlägiger Konferenzen in der Verantwortung, dies durch entsprechende Selbstverpflichtungen umzusetzen.…”

FGTwitter debate: green gastroenterology – are we nearly there yet?

“…After the COVID-19 restrictions had been lifted, many were relishing the prospect of networking with colleagues from across the UK at BSG 2022, but is the waste generated by face-to-face conferences justifiable? In studies modelling the travel to Canadian national gastroenterology conferences, the average CO 2 emitted per delegate was 0.54 tonnes, equivalent to over 250 OGDs!3 While the distance travelled for UK delegates is likely to have been shorter, rail trikes put a spanner in the works for many when it came to travelling to Birmingham this year, with 53.3% (16/30) poll respondents reporting they travelled by car (figure 1). If the results of this small poll are representative of the 1943 in-person attendees, this represents over 1000 car journeys, with a mile driven by car roughly equivalent to a mile flown in terms of CO 2 emitted.…”