Launched at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in September 2021, the Glasgow Declaration is a plan designed to help the tourism industry honor the global commitment to halve carbon emissions by 2030 and meet the overarching objective of achieving net zero by 2050.
The global tourism industry is incredibly vulnerable to climate change. However, tourism is also a significant contributor to the carbon and greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming. The sector is responsible for 8 percent of these emissions. Conservation experts agree that tourism needs to become more sustainable, not only to protect the planet, but to safeguard the future of the industry.
In 2020, the world saw a 7 percent reduction in global greenhouse gas emissions. On the face of it, this appears to be an encouraging statistic. Nevertheless, this achievement was not intentional, but rather an impact of COVID-19 as businesses shuttered, people worked from home, and travel declined. Indeed, conservationists warn that this revelation actually highlights a staggering lack of progress in climate action to date.
To put it in context, experts suggest that achieving the goals delineated in the Paris Agreement would demand a continuation of this 7 percent annual reduction every year for the next ten years—all in a post-COVID world without lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, and with a fierce resurgence in international travel.
Beautiful and vulnerable
One of the most painful ironies of climate change lies in the fact that many of the world’s most beautiful and iconic places also happen to be the most vulnerable. Communities that are heavily reliant on tourism for their economies are struggling as climate change threatens their existence. Hotter temperatures, shifting climate patterns, more frequent extreme weather, and rising seas are placing the future of some of the world’s most beautiful locations in jeopardy.
Take for example Denali National Park, which is home to the highest mountain peak in North America. Covering almost 6 million acres of wilderness in central Alaska, the park has just one access point: a winding country road that spans more than 90 miles.
In recent years, rising temperatures have caused the permafrost beneath the road to deteriorate, placing this vital lifeline in jeopardy. In August 2021, the road had to be closed by the National Park Service, forcing the evacuation of trapped visitors.
Speaking with The Guardian, one employee of a lodge in Denali explained that the closure had cost his business and locals reliant on it somewhere in the region of $250,000 in lost revenue, with seasonal staff missing out on wages. Local farms and fisheries also missed out on trade. Even the local education system was impacted, because it is partially funded by overnight occupancy taxes.
Climate change also poses a severe threat to the many islands around the world that are vacation hotspots. For example, visitors flock to the Maldives, a tropical archipelago in the Indian Ocean, to enjoy its white sand beaches, crystal clear lagoons, and natural beauty. More than 1 million tourists arrived in 2021, and tourism is a major force in the national economy.
Yet as a low-lying chain of islands, the Maldives are extremely vulnerable to even a small rise in sea levels—it’s possible that most of the archipelago could be completely submerged by the end of this century. Their coral reefs are also vulnerable to bleaching as the ocean becomes warmer. In 2016, 60 percent of the island nation’s coral reefs were affected by a bleaching event.
Solutions for more sustainable tourism
The idea of sustainable tourism might seem like an oxymoron—after all, flying from one place to another produces carbon emissions, visiting natural areas puts stress on the local environment, and vacationers typically produce waste they wouldn’t otherwise if they simply stayed home. Even so, it is possible to make tourism and travel much more sustainable than it is right now.
For example, according to the Environmental Performance Index, the European nations of France, Switzerland, and Denmark rank as the world’s most sustainable countries despite undergoing rapid economic growth and tourism growth. Meanwhile, Albania made an impressive climb from 61st place in 2016 to 40th place in 2018 after prioritizing the protection of various wild areas, including Karaburun-Sazan Marine Park, the country’s first and only marine park, in an initiative backed by the United Nations Development Programme.
For those travelers who want to take matters into their own hands, there are various avenues to explore, including the following:
- Minimize air travel
Planes are a particularly carbon-intense form of transportation in most cases: one single transcontinental flight generates about 14 percent of the yearly greenhouse gas emissions of a passenger vehicle. If you must fly, choose nonstop flights, which get you to your destination via the shortest route.
- Use greener transportation at your destination
Take public transit, walk, or cycle once at your destination. If you’re visiting a foreign country, consider intercity trains to travel to multiple cities, rather than booking several domestic flights.
- Don’t contribute to overtourism
Go off the beaten path a bit—try to avoid the most popular destinations during their high seasons, or at least during peak times of the day. Some sensitive natural locations and cultural treasures are in danger of being “loved to death.” Plan ahead, do your research, and adopt a flexible attitude when you’re at your destination.
- Book wisely
When choosing your accommodations, pick a hotel close to the main activities you’ll be doing—both for your own convenience and so you can minimize the distance you must travel each day, especially if you’ll be driving. Also look for sustainability certifications from reputable third-party organizations, like Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) or the Global Sustainable Tourism Council.
According to the research from the UN World Tourism Organization, carbon emissions from tourism are on target to increase by 25 percent by 2030 compared with 2016 levels—if we continue on the business-as-usual track. It’s clear that there needs to be a significant scale-up in climate action in the travel and tourism industry. The cost of inaction on climate change is far larger than the cost of any other crisis in modern history.
David Geithner 