For the first time, we gave participants at the annual EGU General Assembly the opportunity to offset the CO₂ emissions resulting from their travel to and from Vienna. We are happy to report that, as a result of this initiative, we raised nearly €17,000 for a carbon offsetting scheme. The Carbon Footprint project the EGU is donating to aims to reduce deforestation in Brazil and “is expected to avoid over 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent greenhouse gas emissions over a 40 year period.”

Close to 4,800 attendees, about 40% of online registrants (or 32% of overall participants), chose to offset their carbon footprint during the EGU 2018 General Assembly registration process. Most of these participants (over 4,000) came from European countries, including Austria, with 34 travelling from Australia and New Zealand and close to 700 from other countries outside Europe.

The EGU General Assembly, the largest geosciences conference in Europe, attracted some 15,000 attendees to Vienna in 2018. With such a large number of participants, many flying to the Austrian capital to attend, the meeting has a large environmental impact, which the EGU is seeking to reduce through implementing a number of green measures.

“EGU is committed to the goal of sustainable and responsible stewardship of the planet and minimising the carbon footprint of our activities is an integral part of that goal. We are delighted with the positive response to the carbon offsetting scheme introduced this year and are actively pursuing a number of other ways to minimise our impact on the environment,” says EGU President Jonathan Bamber.

“It is truly encouraging that so many General Assembly participants offset the carbon footprint of their travel to Vienna. We hope that next year even more will join our efforts towards a greener meeting and choose to offset their CO₂ emissions during registration,” says EGU Programme Committee Chair Susanne Buiter.

On top of the funds raised through General Assembly registrations, the EGU is also offsetting the carbon footprint resulting from EGU Council members’ travels to and from Vienna. The EGU will also offset CO₂ emissions of Council members who travelled to EGU Programme Committee meetings.

• EGU 2018 General Assembly
• EGU 2019 General Assembly
• Austria Center Vienna
• Carbon Footprint carbon offsetting certificate, issued to our conference organiser Copernicus