responsible for crash. Reduced air traveling essential for environmental goal

Climate-friendly traveling required

– The University of Gothenburg’s CO2 emissions will be halved by 2030 to achieve the climate goals. It will require an adjustment, where reduced air travel accounts for some of it.

This is the opinion of the chairman of the task force within the Climate Framework, Pro Vice-Chancellor Mattias Goksör. He sees the proposal as a consequence of the government’s climate goals for state agencies.

TOGETHER WITH 37 other Swedish universities, the University of Gothenburg has signed the Climate Framework, something that all faculties also support. – Now the task force is finally ready to get started. We propose two management tools: firstly a tool that makes it clear what is affecting the climate, and secondly a carbon budget that is followed up in the same way as the financial budget. This will help the units make climate-friendly decisions, says Mattias Goksör.

The task force’s new proposal on climate transition (see Facts section below) is a way of creating incentives for more people to choose climate-smarter alternatives to travelling. But to see the charges of three kronor per kilo of carbon dioxide as a penalty or tax is completely wrong, he says.

– IT IS ABOUT changing behaviours using the means we have. You do not lose any money or receive less in allocation. Instead, we want to spend the money on climate-smart alternatives, where, for example, train travel is a good alternative. It is up to each department to decide. We will of course continue to travel, but hopefully in a way that has less impact on the climate.

Malin Broberg, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, also believes that the transition to digital tools has meant that we no longer need to fly as much.

– WHAT WE HAVE learned during the pandemic is that digital meetings save time and money. When we start to assign different priorities to our trips, we also get a more sustainable and equitable working life, where we get more family time. – We will not be doing this in isolation, Malin Broberg continues. It is not something we can choose to do or not to do, but a requirement from the government, and we must all contribute. That is why we have chosen to describe it as a provision, rather than a surcharge, because it is about creating a fund to be able to make investments that we otherwise would not have been able to make.

Student representative Elin Gunnarsson also stresses the importance of having well-thoughtout climate initiatives that promote flexibility and climate-friendly modes of travel.

– IN JUST A FEW YEARS, I think we will look back on our efforts and conclude that it was thanks to these measures that our emissions could be halved.

The plan is for the climate transition to be introduced sometime at the beginning of next year but initially, workshops and pilot studies await.

Henrik Aronsson, Head of the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, points out that many people within the organisation look forward to the university taking the lead. – Of course there will be some questions, irritation and teething problems in the beginning. But for me, this is a very easy project to sell. I only see its benefits and it’s easy to tell people why we are doing this. We are doing this not only for all of us right here and now, but also for our grandchildren.

Mattias Goksör

Malin Broberg

Henrik Aronsson

Elin Gunnarsson

Text: Allan Eriksson Photo: Johan Wingborg

FACTS

The climate transition proposal, which was presented in the last issue of the GU Journal, involves the following: instead of today’s climate compensation, where a small fee is charged per flight, a climate transition is proposed, based on a fee of 3 krona per kilogram of carbon dioxide on all international flights. Domestic flights will be subject to a default fee of SEK 3,000 as an incentive to replace short flights with train travel. The model is based on 20 percent of the money going to a central fund that will benefit the entire university’s climate efforts. The remaining 80 percent will go back to the departments for various types of initiatives that will reduce emissions and compensate for the extra time it takes to travel by train.

GU-researchers publish the most

Between 2010 and 2019, the University of Gothenburg’s publications on the Web of Science increased by as much as 115 percent. This is considerably more than the universities of Lund and Uppsala, which both increased by around 70 percent. Even though it is difficult to read too much into the statistics, it looks promising for the University of Gothenburg, says Vice-Chancellor Göran Landberg.

IT IS GRATIFYING that the University of Gothenburg has come out well in the statistics, even though there are very complex connections, and publications as a measure of scientific productivity should be viewed with some caution, Göran Landberg continues.

As the GU Journal has previously reported, the number of publications at all of the University of Gothenburg’s faculties has increased dramatically, according to statistics from the University Library’s digital services. Now Lars Kullman, Bibliometrician at the Publishing and Bibliometric Services team, has produced figures for how much the University of Gothenburg’s publications on the Web of Science have increased compared to other universities and put it in relation to total research resources.

LARS KULLMAN thinks that the result is positive for the University of Gothenburg. – There is a correlation – perhaps not a causal link – between resources and the increase in the number of articles. That’s not very strange. The more money you put in, the greater the exchange. Although it is difficult to draw far-reaching conclusions, it appears that the University of Gothenburg’s researchers are more efficient.

Another explanation may be that there is a small group of researchers who together are responsible for producing a large number of articles. And a lot of publications in prestigious journals yield even more citations.

Web of Science, which is a commercial stakeholder in the market, has had a monopoly for many years, but in recent years has faced competition from Scopus, for example. It has also meant that Web of Science has included more subjects and broadened its indexing, which in turn may have benefited a university with a broad scope, such as the University of Gothenburg.

Göran Landberg emphasizes that an increase in indexation does not reflect reality.

– WITHOUT BREAKING DOWN the numbers in areas at our university, it is difficult to rule out that the increase may be due to an administrative change in the Web of Science, i.e. an increased indexation in fields where we already have significant research activity.

Lars Kullman points out that Web of Science indexes 65 percent of everything currently produced at the University of Gothenburg, but just over 90 percent of the scientific output. – Although it may have benefited the University of Gothenburg more, it should also have benefited major universities with a broad scope such as Lund and Uppsala. But the University of Gothenburg still stands out with a larger number of articles, says Lars Kullman.

The question is whether there is a connection between resources and the exchange of more research articles. There is some indication that there is. However, on the other hand, both Lund and Uppsala universities received more research resources compared to the University of Gothenburg. – Productivity seems to have risen, which looks promising. This may be an effect of the investment in incentive structures that the University of Gothenburg has developed over the years, where, for example, grants from the

Lars Kullman

Göran Landberg

It is gratifying that the University of Gothenburg has come out well in the statistics ...

GÖRAN LANDBERG