Carbon Impact

Research and Traveling

Today, working as a researcher implies traveling. Participation in international conferences, lab visits and being a member of PhD juries are highly valuable on a CV. At the individual level, traveling is almost compulsory to obtain a permanent position and obtain funding. At my research community level, traveling plays a role in the exchange of ideas (with publications, emails, remote meetings). I believe traveling is also organised both at individual and community level for the pleasure it provides and the social status it gives.

From my understanding of GIEC reports, the incompatibility of today’s organisation of research traveling and our common future is a fact we need to deal with. With the COVID crisis, we all saw that doing research without traveling is possible. It is less efficient sometimes, less pleasant for sure. It is however necessary: we know that our adaptation to global warming realities implies a temporary loss of efficiency, comfort and pleasure.

Carbon impact of traveling

The following is a transparency attempt of the carbon impact of my research traveling activities. Note that I only take my long distance travels into account: this does not represent my total CO2 footprint. I also only indicate traveling for professional reasons.

2024

Geneva (January, visits)
Train Paris – Geneva, ~1000km ≈ 1.7 kgCO2

Bordeaux (January, workshop)
Train Paris – Bordeaux *2, ~1100km ≈ 1.9 kgCO2

Strasbourg (February, seminar)
Train Paris – Strasbourg , ~1000km ≈ 1.7 kgCO2

2023 > 2700 kgCO2 [Train ~15 kgCO2, short flights ~550 kgCO2, long flights ~2150 kgCO2 ]

Paris (January, new job)
Train Barcelona – Paris, ~1000km ≈ 1.7 kgCO2

Gent (February, conference)
Train Paris – Gent *2, ~600km ≈ 1 kgCO2

Rennes (February, visit)
Train Paris – Rennes *2, ~700km ≈ 1.2 kgCO2

Bordeaux (April, visit)
Train Paris – Bordeaux *2, ~1200km ≈ 2 kgCO2

Waterloo, Canada (April, workshop)
Plane Paris – Toronto *2, ~12000km ≈ 2160 kgCO2

Cologne (Mai, workshop)
Train Paris – Cologne *2, ~1000km ≈ 1.4 kgCO2

Benasque (June, conference)
Train Paris – Barcelona *2, ~2000km ≈ 3.4 kgCO2

Warsaw (November, workshop)
Plane Paris-Warsaw *2, ~3000km ≈ 540 kgCO2

Lyon (November, workshop)
Train Paris – Lyon *2, ~900km ≈ 1.5 kgCO2

Lyon (November, workshop)
Train Paris – Lyon *2, ~900km ≈ 1.5 kgCO2

2022 > 7800 kgCO2 [Train ~15 kgCO2, short flights ~950 kgCO2, long flights ~6800 kgCO2 ]

Paris, Luxembourg, Diablerets, Grenoble, Lyon (January, visits and workshop)
Train Angers-Paris-Luxembourg, Geneve-Diablerets-Grenoble-Lyon-Bracelona ~ 1800km ≈ 3.1 kgCO2
Flight Luxembourg – Genève, ~500km ≈ 90 kgCO2

Lausanne, Luxembourg (February, Master thesis comity, visits)
Flight Geneva – Barcelona, ~800km ≈ 145 kgCO2
Train Lausanne – Luxembourg, ~600km ≈ 1kgCO2

Los Angeles (March, conference)
Flight Barcelona – Los Angeles *2, ~19000km ≈ 3420 kgCO2

San Francisco (April, workshop)
Flight Barcelona – San Francisco *2, ~19000km ≈ 3420 kgCO2

Diableret (June, workshop)
Train Barcelona – Diableret, Diablertet – Zurich, ~1200km ≈ 2 kgCO2

Tropea (July, conference)
Flight Zurich – Lamezia *2 ~ 2800km ≈ 504 kgCO2

Paris (September, visit)
Train Zurich – Paris *2, ~1200km ≈ 2 kgCO2

Siegen, Bochum, Toulouse, Barcelona (Workshop, visit)
Train Zurich – Siegen -Bochum, ~650km ≈ 1.1 kgCO2
Train Toulouse – Barcelona, ~400km ≈ 0.7 kgCO2
Flight Franckfurt – Toulouse, ~1200km ≈ 216 kgCO2

Paris (November, conference)
Train Barcelona-Paris *2, ~2000km ≈ 3.4 kgCO2

Lyon, Lausanne, Paris
Train Barcelona – Lyon – Lausanne – Paris ~1400km ≈ 2.4 kgCO2

2021 > 180 kgCO2 [Train ~5 kgCO2, short flights ~180 kgCO2 ]

Geneva, Lausanne, Zurich and Luxembourg (October, visits)
Train Barcelona – Geneva – Zurich – Geneva – Luxembourg, ~1900km ≈ 3.3 kgCO2
Flight Luxembourg – Barcelona, ~1000km ≈ 180 kgCO2

Paris (December, visits)
Train Barcelona – Paris, ~1000km ≈ 1.7 kgCO2

2020 > 7800 kgCO2 [long flights ~7800 kgCO2 ]

Shenzhen, Hefei and Singapor (January, conference and visits)
Flight Geneva – Abu Dhabi – Shenzhen – Hefei – Singapore – Geneva ~26200km ≈ 4716 kgCO2

Los Alamos and Denver (February, conference and visits)
Flight Geneva – Los Alamos – Denver – Barcelona, ~17400km ≈ 3132 kgCO2

2019 > 900 kgCO2 [Train ~3 kgCO2, car ~30 kgCO2, short flights ~900 kgCO2 ]

Benasque (July, workshop)
Train Geneva – Toulouse, ~950km ≈ 1.6 kgCO2
Car Toulouse – Benasque (÷2people) *2, ~150km ≈ 29 kgCO2

Capri and Sopot (September, workshop, conference and visit)
Flight Geneva – Napolie – Varsow – Geneva, ~3600km ≈ 648 kgCO2
Train Varsow-Sopot *2, ~700km ≈ 1.2 kgCO2

Barcelona (November, research visit)
Flight Geneva – Barcelona *2, ~1250km ≈ 225 kgCO2

2018 > 2300 kgCO2 [Train ~1 kgCO2, short flights ~200 kgCO2, long flights 2000 kgCO2 ]

Orders of magnitudes

Total CO2 footprint per european (2022 – Eurostat): 6700 kgCO2 / year (energy, goods and service consumption)

Air Transport CO2 footprint per european (2019 – Eurostat): 139 kgCO2 / year

Methodology

I did not apply a rigorous methodology. As I did not keep track of everything, this is not complete before the year 2021. For simplicity, I take the approximate rates 180 gCO2/km for flights, 1,73 gCO2e/km for trains and 193 gCO2e/km for cars (divided by occupant number), taken from the French ecological transition agency (ADEME – https://agirpourlatransition.ademe.fr/particuliers/bureau/calculer-emissions-carbone-trajets)