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An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships

PURPOSE: International partnerships have an important role in capacity building in global health, but frequently involve travel and its associated carbon footprint. The environmental impact of global health partnerships has not previously been quantified. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective intern...

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Autores principales: Chibane, Sarah, Ryan, Talia, Nizeyimana, Francoise, Gill, Onica, Abate, Ananya, Hamstra, Joel, Crawford, Ana, Barnbrook, Julian, Bould, M. Dylan
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36670316
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12630-022-02388-w
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author Chibane, Sarah
Ryan, Talia
Nizeyimana, Francoise
Gill, Onica
Abate, Ananya
Hamstra, Joel
Crawford, Ana
Barnbrook, Julian
Bould, M. Dylan
author_facet Chibane, Sarah
Ryan, Talia
Nizeyimana, Francoise
Gill, Onica
Abate, Ananya
Hamstra, Joel
Crawford, Ana
Barnbrook, Julian
Bould, M. Dylan
author_sort Chibane, Sarah
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: International partnerships have an important role in capacity building in global health, but frequently involve travel and its associated carbon footprint. The environmental impact of global health partnerships has not previously been quantified. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective internal audit of the environmental impact of air travel for the international education programs of the Canadian Anesthesiology Society’s International Education Fund (CASIEF). We compiled a comprehensive list of volunteer travel routes and used the International Civil Aviation Organization Carbon Emissions Calculator, which considers travel distance, passenger numbers, and average operational data for optimized estimates. Comparisons were made with average Canadian household emissions and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost from climate change consequences. RESULTS: The total carbon dioxide emitted (CO(2)-e) for the Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Guyana CASIEF partnerships were 268.2, 60.7, and 52.0 tons, respectively. The DALYs cost of these programs combined is estimated to be as high as 1.1 years of life lost due to the effects of CO(2)-e. The mean daily carbon cost of the average Rwanda partnership was equivalent to daily emissions of 2.2 Canadians (or 383 Rwandans), for the Guyana partnership was equivalent to 1.6 Canadians (or 7.6 Guyanese people), and for the Ethiopia partnership was equivalent to 2.4 Canadians (or 252 Ethiopian people). CONCLUSIONS: Air travel from these CASIEF partnerships resulted in 380.9 tons CO(2)-e but also enabled 5,601 volunteer days-in-country since 2014. The estimated environmental cost needs to be balanced against the impact of the programs. Regardless, carbon-reduction remains a priority, whether by discouraging premium class travel, organizing longer trips to reduce daily emissions, prioritizing remote support and virtual education, or developing partnerships closer to home.
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spelling pubmed-98596642023-01-23 An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships Chibane, Sarah Ryan, Talia Nizeyimana, Francoise Gill, Onica Abate, Ananya Hamstra, Joel Crawford, Ana Barnbrook, Julian Bould, M. Dylan Can J Anaesth Reports of Original Investigations PURPOSE: International partnerships have an important role in capacity building in global health, but frequently involve travel and its associated carbon footprint. The environmental impact of global health partnerships has not previously been quantified. METHODS: We conducted a retrospective internal audit of the environmental impact of air travel for the international education programs of the Canadian Anesthesiology Society’s International Education Fund (CASIEF). We compiled a comprehensive list of volunteer travel routes and used the International Civil Aviation Organization Carbon Emissions Calculator, which considers travel distance, passenger numbers, and average operational data for optimized estimates. Comparisons were made with average Canadian household emissions and disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost from climate change consequences. RESULTS: The total carbon dioxide emitted (CO(2)-e) for the Rwanda, Ethiopia, and Guyana CASIEF partnerships were 268.2, 60.7, and 52.0 tons, respectively. The DALYs cost of these programs combined is estimated to be as high as 1.1 years of life lost due to the effects of CO(2)-e. The mean daily carbon cost of the average Rwanda partnership was equivalent to daily emissions of 2.2 Canadians (or 383 Rwandans), for the Guyana partnership was equivalent to 1.6 Canadians (or 7.6 Guyanese people), and for the Ethiopia partnership was equivalent to 2.4 Canadians (or 252 Ethiopian people). CONCLUSIONS: Air travel from these CASIEF partnerships resulted in 380.9 tons CO(2)-e but also enabled 5,601 volunteer days-in-country since 2014. The estimated environmental cost needs to be balanced against the impact of the programs. Regardless, carbon-reduction remains a priority, whether by discouraging premium class travel, organizing longer trips to reduce daily emissions, prioritizing remote support and virtual education, or developing partnerships closer to home. Springer International Publishing 2023-01-20 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9859664/ /pubmed/36670316 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12630-022-02388-w Text en © Canadian Anesthesiologists' Society 2023, Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Reports of Original Investigations
Chibane, Sarah
Ryan, Talia
Nizeyimana, Francoise
Gill, Onica
Abate, Ananya
Hamstra, Joel
Crawford, Ana
Barnbrook, Julian
Bould, M. Dylan
An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title_full An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title_fullStr An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title_full_unstemmed An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title_short An audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society International Education Foundation partnerships
title_sort audit of the carbon footprint of travel for the canadian anesthesiologists’ society international education foundation partnerships
topic Reports of Original Investigations
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9859664/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36670316
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12630-022-02388-w
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