The 15,000 politicians, activists, MPs, journalists, and civil servants from 180 countries who travelled to Bali for the talks emitted between 60,000 and 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, not far short of what a country like Malawi or Chad emits in a year – for which host nation Indonesia planted 79 million trees to try and offset… all for very little accomplished.
Posted by envirostats on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
The greatest emissions resulted from flights to and from Indonesia, but extra air conditioning and car travel during two weeks of meetings added significantly to the carbon budget.
While all UN delegates and most European government delegates had their flights offset with financial investments in schemes which buy up greenhouse emissions, it is not known how many other attendees tried to lessen their impact.
The UN spent nearly £50,000 offsetting its emissions from two dozen UN agencies, funds and programmes, as well as the carbon footprint of secretary general Ban Ki-moon and his entourage. “We at the UN climate secretariat are offsetting by buying emission reductions under the Clean Development Mechanism. Then it is up to the individual delegates and journalists. The responsibility lies with them,” said a UN spokesman.
David Adam, the Guardian’s sole correspondent in Bali, had his carbon footprint offset in a scheme by Climate Care, which invests in renewable energy in developing countries.
- CO2 statistics courtesy of the United Nations while trees planted statistic courtesy of the Indonesian government, both via The Guardian, Dec 15 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007 at 7:11 am
[...] To add insult to injury, the conference had an enormous carbon footprint. The 15,000 politicians, activists, MPs, journalists, and civil servants from 180 countries who travelled to Bali for the talks emitted between 60,000 and 100,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide, not far short of what a country like Malawi or Chad emits in a year – for which host nation Indonesia planted 79 million trees to try and offset… all for very little accomplished. from EnviroStats! [...]