Astronomy is a very international & collaborative field, but as can be seen from the map, the majority of meetings tend to take place in Europe & North America.

Meetings in remote places cause more flights ➡️ more emissions. We estimate is at least 42,500 tCO2e in total in 2019.

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Not a big surprise, but the higher the amount of local (less than 100 km from venue) participants, the smaller the average emissions.

Most astronomy meetings are small, with less than 100 attendees. But depending on the meeting venue, average emissions can be very high if most people have to fly medium to long distance. For large meetings, average emissions scatter around the average value of 1t CO2e per person.

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Who gets to travel to these in-person meetings? Proportionally more researchers from wealthier countries with a higher Human Development Index, and those also seem to travel to more meetings in general.

But more importantly, who does not get to travel much, or at all? ➡️ Scientists at less wealthy institutes or in less wealthy countries; scientists having to deal with lengthy/complicated visa processes; scientists with care-taking responsibilities; and scientists with disabilities.

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