INTERNATIONAL Science & Research Internationales Verkehrswesen (72) 3 | 2020 62 Environmental effects of the Covid-19 lockdown The example of an EU online convention Virtual meeting, Transport modes, Environment budget Travel restrictions and curfews due to Covid-19 have motivated mobility researchers around the world to consider the impact of the lockdown for the population, the transport system and particular modes of transport as well as for different transport branches. With the help of activity journals, the authors of this report analysed how daily behaviour and everyday mobility have changed through the curfews, especially for the group of students. The following article highlights briefly which reliefs can arise due to these changes in travel activities, both for the global environment and the individual budget. This shall be demonstrated by the example of an online convention, a virtual meeting among experts, as part of a long-planned and digitally realised closing event of an EU-Project. Matthias Gather, Claudia Hille I n course of the Interreg Project “Sub- Nodes”, which deals with the improvement of the regional accessibility by establishing secondary transport hubs (= subnodes) in specific regions, a big closing event was planned in Brussels in July 2020 with representatives of the European Union, the several project partners and also numerous external guests. Due to the travel restrictions, it was decided to realise this event as an online convention on 26 May 2020. In this online convention 91 attendants from 14 different countries participated (figure 1). With Brussels as a virtual venue, more than 100,000 passenger-kilometers (Pkm) of transport performance was saved for all outward and return journeys (table 1). Assuming that travel distances of more than 500 km linear distance are flown, 86,000 km traveled on airplanes were calculated. The remaining journeys were spread equally to car and railway travels, which resulted in 10,900 km covered on each mode of transportation, respectively (with a calculated detour factor of 1.3 respectively towards the calculated linear distance). Next, saved greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) were calculated. Besides carbon dioxide emissions, the emissions contain other greenhouse gases as well as volatile carbon monoxides, hydrocarbons, nitric oxides and particles. The underlying emission factors are based on values given by the German Environment Agency (2018) and amount in total to around 20 tons. Another underlying assumption was that participants with a single travel distance of more than 200 km (linear distance) would have booked an overnight stay at a hotel in Brussels. Using values by the Institute for Applied Ecology (2013) further 1,150 kg GHG-emissions were saved by not needing accommodation. Altogether, almost 23 tons of GHG-emissions were avoided with the online-convention. With the aid of comparative studies, CO 2 -emissions for the realisation of the online-event were also calculated and amounted in a little more than 50 kg for all 91 participants. Finally, directly saved travel and accommodation expenses were calculated. The costs for accommodation were computed Photo: J.C. Gellidon / Unsplash Science & Research INTERNATIONAL Internationales Verkehrswesen (72) 3 | 2020 63 based on the refundable expenses according to the German Travel Expenses Act (BRKG). For the calculation of travel costs, several assumptions have been made. For the expenses of a car trip, the defined rate of 0.30 EUR/ km in the BRKG was considered. For train journeys, the average fare by the German Rail (DB) was taken as a basis, amounting to 0.20 EUR/ km. For flights, 0.30 EUR/ km was used as well. Yet, it has to be noted that fares for flight tickets vary greatly depending on connection and airline. Using the values above, saved travel costs amount to 30,000 EUR, and saved accommodation costs around 9,000 EUR. In total, more than 40,000 EUR direct travel and accommodation expenses were saved (table 2). All in all, the calculations displayed here can of course only be a rudimentary calculation to give an example on the extent expenditures were reduced in the course of the lockdown. On the cost side, the time required for arrival and departure could have also been included. On the benefit side, it needs to be questioned if the benefit of an online convention is comparable to a physical meeting with all project partners and participants. Also, it needs to be considered whether more than 90 participants from all over Europe would have traveled to Brussels in person, or how many persons canceled the planned participation due to the online character. Nevertheless, numerous participants attended the event and that participation has been evaluated as interesting and worthwhile. The objectives could be reached with minimal expenditure for the individual budget as well as for the global environment. Saved distance Greenhouse gases Carbon monoxide Volatile Hydrocarbon Nitric oxides Particles km kg Railway, long-distance travel Calculation basis for emissions (g/ Pkm) 32 0.02 0.00 0.04 0.001 Sum 10,866.70 347.73 0.22 0.00 0.43 0.01 Car Calculation basis for emissions (g/ Pkm) 147 1.00 0.14 0.43 0.007 Sum 10,866.70 1,597.40 10.87 1.52 4.67 0.08 Airplane Calculation basis for emissions (g/ Pkm) 230 0.48 0.13 1.01 0.014 Sum 86,108.00 19,804.84 41.33 11.19 86.97 1.21 Accommodation Calculation basis (kg CO 2 -eq./ overnight stay) 67 Overnight stays 17,2 Sum 1,152.40 Total 107,841.40 22,902.38 52.42 12.72 92.08 1.29 Table 1: Calculation of the emissions balance of the SubNodes-Online-Convention (Source: own calculation) Figure 1: Saved travels due to the EU online convention on “Regional Mobility beyond TEN-T” INTERNATIONAL Science & Research Internationales Verkehrswesen (72) 3 | 2020 64 However, EU-projects greatly and significantly depend on the personal exchange between all project partners. The dialogue strengthens the intercultural competence of all partners and also the European cohesion. A virtual convention can indeed make a knowledge transfer among each other possible, but also informal exchange and the possibility for networking are crucial for conferences. The complete conversion to virtual conventions can, therefore, be no sustainable model for future projects of European cooperation. The presented example still showed how such an online event can be successful and what kind of reliefs can be reached. The potential saving effects lead to the question of how online formats could be used and supported stronger in the future. In the light of the global climate crisis, a simple “business as usual” approach after the coronavirus pandemic seems hardly possible. In fact, in times of the lockdowns became apparent which opportunities the digitalisation offers regarding the reduction of CO 2 -emissions. ■ REFERENCES DNR - Deutscher Klimaschutzring (eds.) (2019): Digitalisierung. Neue Hoffnung oder dunkle Bedrohung. Infografik. In: MOVUM. Debattenmagazin der Umweltbewegung. Berlin Hille, Claudia; Gather, Matthias (2020): Mobilität und Zeitverwendung in Zeiten von Covid-19. Ergebnisse einer empirischen Erhebung mittels Aktivitätentagebüchern. Berichte des Instituts Verkehr und Raum, Band 28, Erfurt Öko-Institut e.V. (eds.) (2013): Vergleichende Klimabilanz von Motorcaravanreisen - heute & morgen. Darmstadt SubNodes - Interreg Central Europe (2017-2020). www.interreg-central. eu/ Content.Node/ subnodes.html Umweltbundesamt (2018): Emissionsdaten - Emissionen im Personenverkehr. www.umweltbundesamt.de/ themen/ verkehr-laerm/ emis sionsdaten#verkehrsmittelvergleich_personenverkehr (access: 23 June 2020) Matthias Gather, Prof. Dr. Transport policy and regional planning, Erfurt University of Applied Sciences matthias.gather@fh-erfurt.de Claudia Hille Transport policy and regional planning, Erfurt University of Applied Sciences claudia.hille@fh-erfurt.de Saved distance km Saved travel costs EUR Railway, long-distance travel Calculation basis for costs (EUR/ Pkm) 0.20 EUR Sum 10,866.70 2,173.34 EUR Car Calculation basis for costs (EUR/ Pkm) 0.30 EUR Sum 10,866.70 3,260.01 EUR Airplane Calculation basis for costs (EUR/ Pkm) 0.30 EUR Sum 86,108.00 25,832.40 EUR Saved accommodation Calculation basis for costs per overnight stay 67 overnight stays 135 EUR Sum 9.045 EUR Total 40,310.75 EUR Table 2: Calculation of monetary costs (own calculation) FACE THE CHALLENGES OF MOBILITY Founded in 1949 - bound forward to face the challenges of tomorrow‘s mobility: With an editorial board of renowned scientists and an advisory board of directors, CEOs and managers from all transport industry areas, »Internationales Verkehrswesen« and »International Transportation« - the worldwide distributed English-language edition - rank as leading cross-system transport journals in Europe for both academic research and practical application. 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