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Location location location: a carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to the UN Climate Conference 2022

Barnsley, Jonathan; Williams, Jhénelle A; Chin-Yee, Simon; Costello, Anthony; Maslin, Mark; McGlade, Jacqueline; Taylor, Richard; ... Parikh, Priti; + view all (2023) Location location location: a carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to the UN Climate Conference 2022. UCL Open: Environment , 5 , Article 12. 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000066. Green open access

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Abstract

Addressing the large carbon footprint of conferences such as the United Nations 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 those most likely to be affected or who can 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 amongst the five UN regions, which for 2022 was Africa. Here, we present a carbon footprint calculator for travel to COP 27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, weighing the benefits of certain routes and modes of transport. The calculator demonstrates the well-known carbon efficiency of coach and rail over flights but shows that these benefits were partly diminished 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. Users of the calculator are invited to consider all their options for travel and acknowledge the issue of climate justice through careful selection of carbon offsets.

Type: Article
Title: Location location location: a carbon footprint calculator for transparent travel to the UN Climate Conference 2022
Location: England
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000066
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.14324/111.444/ucloe.000066
Language: English
Additional information: ©2023 The Authors. Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC BY) 4.0 International licence https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Keywords: COP, carbon footprint, carbon offsetting, climate change, climate justice
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of the Built Environment
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Dept of Geography
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10183225
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