Climate change is a big deal, and caving expeditions can have significant emissions. These were just ignored for a very long time, but following a report to the GPF in 2020 (by Wookey and Mike Butcher) expo decided (starting in 2022) to calculate emissions for the expedition and implement compulsory offsetting for attendees, as a first step to taking emissions seriously.
Offsetting does not reduce emissions but is arguably better than nothing. The Loser expo is intrinsically relatively low-carbon (for Europeans), because caving expedition emissions are dominated by travel, and we encourage members to travel by low carbon means as much as possible. By accounting for (CO2e) emissions and charging a suitable carbon price to members it helps people to consider the full cost of their travel.
There are a lot of wrinkles to the application of this policy, and how it is done is likely to evolve. This page describes current policy and procedure so that whoever is responsible this year can implement it.
Data needed from drivers:
Per person and per journey CO2 (kg) =
Fuel usage (l) * fuel CO2 emissions factor (kg/l) / no. of people in car
(CO2 emissions per litre of EU fuel: diesel = 2.617 kg/l, petrol = 2.329 kg/l, taken from https://www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/fthr/biomass-energy-resources/reference-biomass/facts-figures/carbon-emissions-of-different-fuels/ )
Ferries/chunnel not accounted initially due to lack of data. See if that has changed. DFDS now (2024) have their own carbon insetting program - ask if ticket-buyers used that, to avoid double-counting.
Additional points from 2022 experience:
Data needed:
Methodology:
Data needed:
Methodology:
Data needed:
Methodology:
Mostly people will be doing the UK/France crossing, but some attendees will use ferries elsewhere - e.g from/to Scandinavia or Greek Islands. Good emissions data for ferries is still hard to find, but improving. Emissions vary enormously by ferry type and propulsion system. The main thing is to distinguish the basic type: Chunnel (nuclear-electric rail and thus very low-carbon), standard (displacaement) car ferries, and fast/catamaran/planing type ferries (often passenger only) which use much more fuel. Knowing the name of the ferry or propulsion type would be very helpful.
Data needed:
Methodology:
References: https://thrustcarbon.com/insights/how-to-calculate-emissions-from-a-ferry-journey, https://www.ferryhopper.com/en/blog/featured/eco-sustainable-ferry-travel, https://www.getlinkgroup.com/en/our-group/eurotunnel/
These have not been done so far, and are hard to calculate as most manufacturers do not yet provied LCAs for their stuff, and we don't track purchase weights, but an estimate could be made from the gear/shopping lists and existing materials sources given sufficient enthusiasm.
Sources:
Sum everyone’s CO2 emissions. Input expedition’s total kg CO2 and pay at https://www.atmosfair.de/en/offset/
Calculate every individual’s contribution to the overall expedition CO2 emissions: Individual’s CO2 (kg)/ expo’s total CO2 (kg)
Multiply their proportion by the total sum amount paid for offsetting. Add individual costs to BoE.