With Canada’s west coast going through an unprecedented heatwave and destinations in the Mediterranean on fire, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) new 4000-page report is a call to action for the travel industry to take responsibility for its part in saving the planet and the natural resources, communities and wonders that attract travellers to destinations.
The report declares that increasingly severe heatwaves, droughts, floods and more that will impact every mode of human interaction can be directly pinned on human activity.
“Based on the data that is now available, it behooves every political figure and every decision maker, be it in a company, be it in city government or national government, to look at their climate actions, to look at their emissions reductions, to assess how they can be a contributor, and to ensure that business as usual does not become the continuation,” said Inger Anderson, undersecretary general of the United Nations and executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, at the IPCC virtual press conference.
There are no global standards for greenhouse gas reporting at a destination level, and they remain largely unmeasured.
The report says that as of 2018, global tourism contributed approximately eight percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, higher than the construction industry. Transport-related emissions alone from international tourism are predicted to grow 25 per cent by 2030, according to a 2019 report from the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO).
In JUL, the UNWTO launched a Global Survey of Climate Action in Tourism, in collaboration with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, ATTA and Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency, a volunteer organization of travel industry workers dedicated to addressing climate change.
The survey will have specific versions for destinations, accommodations, tour operators, transportation providers and associations.
In addition, it will be a first-time effort to map climate action across the entire industry, identify the gaps and determine what the industry needs to do going forward for optimal environmental impact.
The results from the survey will be used for a series of guidelines for tour operators, hotels, and destinations, which will be public and available as a free resource in time for the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) on 31OCT to 12NOV in Glasgow.
The goal is for the survey to lead to the Glasgow Agreement - in which all signatories will be publicly aligning with the Paris Agreement to cut down emissions by 50 per cent by 2030. As well, signatories will commit to a climate action plan within a year.
