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The imperative to reduce carbon emissions in astronomy

Nature Astronomy volume 4, pages 843–851 (2020)Cite this article

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Abstract

For astronomers to make a significant contribution to the reduction of climate change-inducing greenhouse gas emissions, we first must quantify the sources of our emissions and review the most effective approaches for reducing them. Here we estimate that Australian astronomers’ total greenhouse gas emissions from their regular work activities are ≳25 ktCO2e yr–1 (equivalent kilotonnes of carbon dioxide per year). This can be broken into ~15 ktCO2e yr–1 from supercomputer usage, ~4.2 ktCO2e yr–1 from flights (where individuals’ flight emissions correlate with seniority), >3.3 ktCO2e yr–1 from the operation of observatories, and 2.6 ± 0.4 ktCO2e yr–1 from powering office buildings. Split across faculty scientists, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students, this averages to ≳37 tCO2e yr–1 per astronomer, more than 40% greater than the average Australian non-dependant’s emissions in total, and equivalent to around five times the global average. To combat these environmentally unsustainable practices, we suggest that astronomers should strongly preference the use of supercomputers, observatories and office spaces that are predominantly powered by renewable energy sources. Where current facilities do not meet this requirement, their funders should be lobbied to invest in renewables, such as solar or wind farms. Air travel should also be reduced wherever possible, replaced primarily by video conferencing, which should also promote inclusivity.

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Fig. 1: Distributions of ICRAR-UWA staff’s air travel CO2-equivalent emissions.
Fig. 2: Breakdown of the four sources of Australian astronomers’ emissions considered in this work.

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Data availability

Travel records for ICRAR-UWA staff and students and ATNF electricity data are private. Queries about how the former were processed should be directed to A.R.H.S. Similarly, flight records of CAS and data from Keck are private, but queries regarding these can be directed to M.T.M. Power meter data from Pawsey are also private; requests for these data should be directed to Pawsey themselves, and we would encourage copying in P.J.E. The demographics of Australian astronomers will be made publicly available online with an accompanying white paper; none of the authors are involved.

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Acknowledgements

S.B., P.J.E. and M.T.M. are supported by the Australian Research Council through project numbers DP180103740, CE170100013 and FT180100194, respectively. This work is an update from a white paper that was commissioned as part of the mid-term review of the 2016–2025 decadal plan for astronomy in Australia. A.R.H.S. thanks L. Staveley-Smith and C. Trott in their capacity as members of the mid-term review panel for their encouragement to write the paper. A.R.H.S. and S.B. thank R. Sharma for extended help in obtaining data pertinent to calculating ICRAR-UWA’s emissions. P.J.E. thanks B. Evans and the Pawsey Supercomputing Centre for generously supplying data used in this work. A.R.H.S. thanks P. Mirtschin and P. Edwards at CSIRO for volunteering and providing information on ATNF facilities.

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Author notes

  1. Pascal J. Elahi

    Present address: Pawsey Supercomputing Centre, Kensington, Western Australia, Australia

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research, The University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Adam R. H. Stevens, Sabine Bellstedt & Pascal J. Elahi

  2. Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D) https://astro3d.org.au/

    Adam R. H. Stevens & Pascal J. Elahi

  3. Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia

    Michael T. Murphy

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  2. Sabine Bellstedt
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Contributions

A.R.H.S. led the writing, analysis and design of this work, but all authors made important contributions to all aspects of this paper. S.B. and A.R.H.S. facilitated the collection of data from ICRAR and produced the figures. P.J.E. liaised with Pawsey to obtain the supercomputing data. M.T.M. provided data for CAS and obtained data from Keck. All authors engaged with observatories’ representatives to obtain information.

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Correspondence to Adam R. H. Stevens.

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Peer review information Nature Astronomy thanks Christopher Matzner, Travis Rector and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Stevens, A.R.H., Bellstedt, S., Elahi, P.J. et al. The imperative to reduce carbon emissions in astronomy. Nat Astron 4, 843–851 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-020-1169-1

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