Conference air travel’s relevance and ways to reduce it

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.