Should We Stop Flying for Conferences? Rethinking Air Travel for a Sustainable Future
Examining the environmental cost of conference flying, exploring alternatives, and reimagining professional gatherings to minimize emissions.
Should We Just Stop Flying for Conferences?
Professional conferences are central to academic and business life, but their environmental cost is soaring. As climate change accelerates, many are questioning whether the traditional model—flying thousands of participants across the globe—remains ethical or sustainable. Can we afford to keep gathering in person as we have for decades, or is it time to fundamentally rethink how we meet and share knowledge?
The Carbon Cost of Conference Flying
Flying is one of the most carbon-intensive activities available to individuals. A single transatlantic round trip can generate nearly a ton of carbon dioxide per passenger—roughly equivalent to driving a typical car for six months. For many academics and professionals, attending multiple conferences a year makes up a staggering portion of their overall carbon footprint.
- Conference travel can account for up to 35% of a researcher’s annual carbon footprint in some fields.
- One in-person international conference can contribute as much as 7% of an academic’s yearly greenhouse gas emissions.
- Air travel constitutes the largest emissions source for academia’s professional meetings, outstripping hotel stays, meals, and local transport.
The scale of emissions was dramatically illustrated by recent studies on major health and scientific conferences. For example, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conference in 2019, an in-person event with over 33,000 attendees, was responsible for more than 37,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalents—largely from air travel.
Why Conferences Matter: The Benefits and Drawbacks
Conferences serve multiple functions beyond knowledge-sharing:
- Networking and collaboration: Face-to-face meetings remain crucial for building relationships, especially for early-career researchers and professionals seeking to join new projects or secure funding.
- Career advancement: Presentations at international events boost CVs and are often required for tenure, promotion, and grant applications. As one young academic put it: “If you’re a PhD student hoping for an academic career, your decision to attend is not just about science—it’s about your future.”
- Exposure to new ideas: Conferences can inspire innovative thinking, serendipitous encounters, and collaborations that rarely occur online.
Yet, the traditional conference model is exclusionary—favoring those with funding, visas, time flexibility, and, until recently, the willingness to accept a growing environmental cost. This has sparked a cultural and ethical debate:
- Are the perceived professional benefits of flying to conferences justified amid the climate crisis?
- Is there a double standard when academic communities focused on sustainability continue to fly extensively?
The Rise of ‘Flight Shame’ and Public Pressure
As climate awareness grows, so too does a new social phenomenon:
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Flygskam (Swedish: ‘flight shame’) | The social pressure or guilt adults—and especially professionals—feel about flying in the climate crisis. |
| Flight-free pledges | Movements encouraging individuals to voluntarily abstain from air travel for a set period, often to catalyze long-term behavior change. |
What others are reading
Prominent figures, from activists to celebrities, have faced scrutiny for flying. Campaigns like Flight Free Sweden have inspired similar commitments worldwide, pushing the idea that flying should now provoke climate reflection, if not outright guilt.
The impact is noticeable: following the flight shame movement’s rise, Swedish domestic air travel decreased by several percentage points in 2019—a rare reversal in decades of growth.
Who Flies to Conferences—and Who Doesn’t?
The ability to attend conferences often highlights inequalities within and between societies:
- Financial barriers: Conference registration, travel, and accommodation costs can be prohibitive, often subsidized for established professionals but rarely for early-career researchers or those from low- and middle-income countries.
- Visa barriers: For participants in the Global South, securing visas can pose insurmountable hurdles, resulting in inequitable access to knowledge-sharing platforms.
- Time and caregiving: Those with family obligations or heavy teaching loads may not have the flexibility to attend distant events.
The virtual shift during the COVID-19 pandemic exposed these disparities but also suggested solutions. Online and hybrid conferences vastly increased accessibility, sometimes allowing thousands more attendees than could have come in person.
Alternatives to Flying: Virtual, Hybrid, and Low-Carbon Travel
Confronted by the emissions of traditional conferences, institutions, and organizers are reevaluating their models.
1. Virtual Conferences
- Eliminate nearly all emissions from travel, conference venues, accommodation, and meals.
- Broaden access: Participants who previously faced financial, visa, or scheduling obstacles can now join globally.
- Drawbacks: Reduced informal networking, screen fatigue, and challenges in replicating in-person interactions.
- Still not emission-free: Data centers and streaming infrastructure do consume energy, but typically only 7% as much as an equivalent face-to-face event.
2. Hybrid Conferences
- Combine regional in-person gatherings (‘hubs’) with online participation, minimizing long-distance travel.
- Studies show hybrid formats can slash overall emissions by up to 86%, compared to all-in-person events.
- Multiple ‘hubs’—known as the ‘hub-and-spoke’ model—allow some networking benefits to be retained locally while reducing the need for international flights.
3. Train and Ground Transport
- For regional meetings, traveling by train or bus is dramatically less carbon-intensive than flying.
- Some European institutions now encourage train travel for journeys within a set distance; Utrecht University, for example, offers a ‘train zone’ policy to help staff plan sustainable travel.
- Time for reflection: Longer ground journeys can foster contemplation, reading, and preparation for meetings—elements lost in the rush to fly.
4. Offsetting and Institutional Initiatives
- Some organizations have introduced carbon offsetting for conference travel, though critics warn this should be a last resort—not a substitute for actual emissions reductions.
- Recommendations now include setting institutional emissions targets, funding virtual infrastructure, and limiting required international presentations for career advancement.
Challenges to Change: Culture, Careers, and Expectations
Despite mounting evidence supporting a reduction in conference flying, several cultural and practical barriers persist:
- Career Pressures: Early-career academics often feel compelled to attend multiple conferences for visibility and career progress, fearing falling behind professionally if they do not.
- Institutional inertia: Many academic promotion and funding systems still prioritize international presentations and networking, reinforcing the expectation of air travel.
- Cultural norms: There is still a perception that face-to-face interaction is inherently superior, especially in fields where partnerships and collaborations are essential.
- Resistance to change: While the pandemic proved the viability of virtual and hybrid models, many organizations are eager to return to ‘normal’—i.e., in-person gatherings.
Case Studies: Transforming Conferences and Travel Habits
1. The ASCO Conference
- The switch from in-person (2019) to fully virtual (2020–2021) conferences cut emissions radically. In 2022, a hybrid format was adopted, with 24,000 attending in person and over 10,000 virtually, demonstrating the feasibility of large-scale hybrid meetings.
2. European Geosciences Union (2020)
- Shifted to a fully online conference during the pandemic, resulting in 10,000 additional participants compared to traditional years, demonstrating both increased access and lower emissions.
3. Personal Choices
- Many individuals are choosing alternative travel modes, inspired by flight-shame campaigns. Train travel is on the rise among climate-conscious professionals and academics.
Rethinking Professional Success: Criteria and Metrics
The current model rewards frequent conference attendance and international visibility. For a genuine shift towards sustainability, metrics of professional success may need to evolve:
- Reducing the number of required international presentations for promotion and funding.
- Valuing virtual participation and collaborative achievements equally with in-person appearances.
- Creating incentives for organizing and joining low-carbon or local meetings.
The Future of Conferences: Towards a Low-Carbon Model
Change will require coordinated action at personal, institutional, and systemic levels. Strategies include:
- Building robust, interactive digital infrastructure to maximize the benefits of online conferences.
- Adopting hybrid and hub-and-spoke models wherever possible, reserving flights only for essential or non-duplicable in-person engagements.
- Promoting accessibility, inclusion, and equity for global participants by minimizing financial, visa, and logistical barriers.
- Normalizing discussions about the environmental impacts of professional activities within organizations and at individual career evaluations.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Q: How much does aviation for conferences contribute to global emissions?
A: Academic and business conference flights make up a small fraction of total global aviation emissions, but are disproportionately high for universities and individual professionals, sometimes reaching 35% of a scientist’s yearly footprint.
Q: Are virtual conferences as effective as traditional ones?
A: Virtual conferences broaden access and drastically reduce environmental cost, but may fall short on informal networking, spontaneous encounters, and building deep professional ties. Hybrid events seek to bridge these gaps.
Q: Can carbon offsetting make flying to conferences sustainable?
A: Offsetting can help address unavoidable emissions, but experts agree it should not replace emission reduction at the source. Systemic changes—like fewer flights and more hybrid participation—are key.
Q: What alternatives exist for necessary travel?
A: For shorter distances, rail and coach travel are much less carbon-intensive. For global gatherings, hybrid or regionalized hub conferences can balance interaction and impact.
Q: What cultural changes are needed for academics to fly less?
A: Promotion metrics, grant requirements, and networking norms must shift to recognize virtual contributions and support low-carbon travel, especially for early-career scholars.
References
- https://sciencebusiness.net/news/come-offset-me-how-new-policies-are-encouraging-researchers-limit-environmental-impact-air
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10881111/
- https://reasonstobecheerful.world/travel-editor-flight-free-climate-change-behavior-change/
- https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/soc4.70013
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