Conference air travel’s relevance and ways to reduce it
通过对瑞士、奥地利和德国17所学术机构研究者的调查，发现航空旅行因认知规范和会议惯例深嵌于学术界，但虚拟会议提供了减排机会，并提出了长期改变实践、物质文化、认知规范和政策的建议。
Reducing emissions from air travel has become an important goal of academic institutions and conferences are a major reason for researchers’ air travel. We conducted separate surveys with researchers at 17 academic institutions in Switzerland, Austria and Germany to examine perceptions of conference air travel and to assess opportunities for its reduction. The results indicate that air travel is deeply embedded in academia through cognitive norms and established conference practices. Although researchers stated that conferences serve important career purposes, such as networking, they acknowledge the importance of reducing air travel. The COVID-19 pandemic served as a window of opportunity to reduce air travel by switching to virtual conferences. Researchers stated that virtual conferences come with both benefits and challenges. Using the transport cultures framework, we identify opportunities for behavioural change and provide concrete recommendations for reducing conference air travel based on long-term changes in practices, material cultures, cognitive norms and policies.