The Environmental Cost of Our Conferences: The CO2 Emissions due to Travel at PODC and DISC

Abstract

The symptoms of the ongoing climate crisis are becoming more and more prevalent, with floods, droughts, and other extreme weather events taking place more and more often [12]. It is clear that action has to be taken now. In the Paris Agreement, world leaders have committed to limiting global warming to 1.5°C [16]. This means emissions must peak before 2025, should decline by 45% by 2030, and reach net zero by 2050. In the years since the Paris Agreement (2015), computer science conferences have been taking little to no action on this front, although the issue has been put on the table several years ago [17]. A commonly-voiced opinion is that our conference-based system is bad for the climate, but is difficult to change. Discussions on this topic, e.g. at business meetings, often mention that we do not have enough data, and that some alternatives could exist, but would have some drawbacks, and would maybe not be effective.