Concerned yet polluting: A survey on French research personnel and climate change

Abstract

We present a survey of the French research community and climate change carried out in 2020. It is one of the largest surveys ever conducted on this issue: it is based on a sample of more than 6,000 respondents representative of the French public sector research community, regardless of their status and discipline. On the one hand, it measures practices that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases, such as air travel, and addresses the differences between disciplines and within them according to different individual characteristics (gender, status, location, etc.). On the other hand, it questions the representations of research actors concerning the climate emergency, and what they are willing to do to reduce their emissions. The survey highlights three results: first, an acute awareness of environmental and climate issues widely shared by members of the scientific community; second, a willingness to implement changes; and third, a clear gap between these attitudes and practices that still emit large amounts of greenhouse gases. This raises the question of the role of research institutions, whose support is required to implement profound reforms in the organization of research activities.

The carbon footprint of scientific visibility

“…The survey was conducted as part of the Labos 1point5 project and is described in full detail in [18]. Labos 1point5 is a nationwide grassroot action, gathering scientists from all disciplines in France, to evaluate, understand, and reduce the carbon footprint of research.…”

Astronomy’s climate emissions: Global travel to scientific meetings in 2019

“…Globally, ∼8 million researchers work in different fields of science, c meaning astronomers make up a fraction of <1% of the world’s scientists. Nonetheless, numbers for France ( 23 ) position astronomy as the science discipline with the largest travel climate impact per researcher. This travel comes at a cost aside from the obvious financial one: a substantial immediate emission of GHGs.…”

“…Reasons for travel include observing at telescopes, project meetings, research visits, the installation of new instruments and telescopes, and the dissemination of knowledge and learning at conferences, workshops, schools and outreach events. The large majority of the distances travelled by astronomers is related to the attendance of conferences, workshops, and other meetings (Blanchard et al, 2022).…”

“…Globally, ∼8 million researchers work in different fields of 1 'Updated analysis of the non-CO 2 effects of aviation' by the EU Aviation Safety Agency: https://climate.ec.europa.eu/news-your-voice/news/updatedanalysis-non-co2-effects-aviation-2020-11-24_en 2 IAU Member statistics: https://www.iau.org/public/themes/member_ statistics/ science 3 , meaning astronomers make up a fraction of <1% of the world's scientists. Nonetheless, numbers for France (Blanchard et al, 2022) position astronomy as the science discipline with the largest travel climate impact per researcher. This travel comes at a cost aside from the obvious financial one: a substantial immediate emission of GHGs.…”

Setting a trajectory for CO2emission reduction in academic research: a case study of a French biophysics laboratory

“…In France, a collective of academics has put together a free online tool to compute the environmental impact of one's laboratory [9]. It allowed the measurement of the carbon footprint of 834 laboratories (as of July 2023) with a standardised protocol, and has led to several publications about the global picture of the carbon footprint of academia in France [10][11][12]. Now that the main emission sectors are known, laboratories have to define their strategies for aiming at a strong reduction of the carbon footprint of their research and make concrete decisions to reach them.…”