The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) believes that climate change poses a threat to travel and tourism and is encouraging members to
Speaking at the annual WTTC Global Summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 18, 2018, Patricia Espinosa, the executive secretary of U.N. Climate Change said that it recognizes that the travel and tourism industry has a major role to play in combatting climate change.
"While climate change itself poses significant risks to some tourism destinations, in many of the most high-risk areas, tourism can provide opportunities for communities to build resilience to its impacts," said Espinosa. "At the same time, as a fast-growing sector, travel and tourism has a responsibility to ensure this growth is sustainable and sits within the parameters set by the Paris Agreement. I call on players across the sector to join us in the move towards a climate neutral world. I am delighted that WTTC is committed to working with us in this ambition."
Gloria Guevara, WTTC president and CEO spoke about a common agenda with the U.N.
"Sustainable growth is one of WTTC's strategic priorities and climate action is a pillar within that," said Guevara. "This is a huge opportunity for our sector to really engage in a meaningful way with the global climate agenda. We are already seeing how climate change is impacting our sector with extreme weather events, rising sea levels and destruction of biodiversity."
"There are many different initiatives from across the WTTC Membership and beyond to reduce the impact of travel and tourism on climate change and through this new common agenda with UN Climate Change we will have a platform to communicate actions and integrate them into the broader initiatives which UN Climate Change is leading, with a particular focus on the upcoming COP24 in Poland," she added.
Travel and tourism is one of the world's largest economic sectors, creating jobs, driving exports and generating prosperity. The sector accounts for 10.4 percent of global GDP and 9.9 percent of total employment. Travel and tourism is also outpacing the global economy at 4.6 percent, compared to 3 percent, and it is expected to continue to grow.
The WTTC outlined several ways in which the travel and tourism industry could address climate change in a meaningful way given its impact on the world economy.
-Communicating the nature and importance of the interlinkages between travel and tourism and climate change.
-Raising awareness of the positive contribution travel and tourism can make to building climate resilience.
-Reducing the contribution of travel and tourism to climate change and supporting quantitative targets and reductions.
"We recognize the very viability of our industry during the Golden Age of Travel depends on a planet that can support and sustain our growth," said Chris Nassetta, WTTC chairman and CEO of Hilton.
"Building on the global scientific consensus around decarbonization efforts that came out of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and WTTC's subsequent call for the dialogue on carbon to turn to science-based targets, now it is time to turn that dialogue into action. As chairman of WTTC, I encourage our Member companies and the wider industry to follow the Paris Climate Agreement and incorporate its objectives into their own actionable science-based targets," Nassetta added.
He noted that, during his time as chairman of the WTTC, he would like to exceed its 30 percent target by 2020.
"I will work with the WTTC research arm and share our LightStay methodology to drive carbon reductions across our operations," Nassetta said.
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