Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27
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...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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UCL Press
2023-11-01
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| Series: | UCL Open Environment |
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| Online Access: | https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ucloe/article/id/1972/ |
| _version_ | 1797270165863268352 |
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| author | Anthony Costello Jacqueline McGlade Jhénelle A Williams Jonathan Barnsley Mark Maslin Matthew Winning priti parikh Richard Taylor Simon Chin-Yee |
| author_facet | Anthony Costello Jacqueline McGlade Jhénelle A Williams Jonathan Barnsley Mark Maslin Matthew Winning priti parikh Richard Taylor Simon Chin-Yee |
| author_sort | Anthony Costello |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | 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. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-25T01:59:56Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-c226a3950b8745d5bb4926de7c49d003 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2632-0886 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-25T01:59:56Z |
| publishDate | 2023-11-01 |
| publisher | UCL Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | UCL Open Environment |
| spelling | doaj.art-c226a3950b8745d5bb4926de7c49d0032024-03-07T15:23:20ZengUCL PressUCL Open Environment2632-08862023-11-015110.14324/111.444/ucloe.000066Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27Anthony Costello0Jacqueline McGlade1Jhénelle A Williams2Jonathan Barnsley3Mark Maslin4Matthew Winning5priti parikh6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1086-4190Richard Taylor7Simon Chin-Yee8Institute for Global Health, Institute of Child Health, University College London, 30 Guilford Street, London, WC1N 1EHInstitute for Global Prosperity, University College London, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7NFDepartment of Geography, North-West Wing, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BTDepartment of Geography, North-West Wing, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BTDepartment of Geography, North-West Wing, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BTUCL Institute for Sustainable Resources, University College London, 14 Upper Woburn Place, London, WC1H 0NNEngineering for International Development Centre, Bartlett School of Sustainable Construction, University College London, 1–19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 7HBDepartment of Geography, North-West Wing, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BTDepartment of Political Science, The School of Public Policy, University College London, The Rubin Building, 29/31 Tavistock Square, London, WC1H 9QUAddressing 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.https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ucloe/article/id/1972/Carbon footprintClimate ChangeCOPClimateCarbon offsettingTravel |
| spellingShingle | Anthony Costello Jacqueline McGlade Jhénelle A Williams Jonathan Barnsley Mark Maslin Matthew Winning priti parikh Richard Taylor Simon Chin-Yee Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 UCL Open Environment Carbon footprint Climate Change COP Climate Carbon offsetting Travel |
| title | Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 |
| title_full | Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 |
| title_fullStr | Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 |
| title_full_unstemmed | Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 |
| title_short | Location location location: A carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to COP27 |
| title_sort | location location location a carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to cop27 |
| topic | Carbon footprint Climate Change COP Climate Carbon offsetting Travel |
| url | https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ucloe/article/id/1972/ |
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