New panel promises action on tourism and climate change

Saudi-led sustainable tourism group promises rigorous measurement of the travel industry’s total emissions

Venice: often held up as an example of tourism’s negative impact (Getty)

How much does the tourism industry contribute to global warming? The widely accepted figure is 8%. Just under half (49%) comes from transport. The rest comes from a variety of sources – ‘goods’, agriculture, food and beverage, construction and mining, lodging, services and the inevitable ‘other’.

With categories as broad as that, it’s hard to see how the sector can reliably measure its emissions and footprint now – let alone make progress towards the Paris climate goals and net-zero.

But from today, there will be a new framework for businesses – and entire countries, even – to measure the impact of tourism. At the Cop27 conference in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Minister of Tourism, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia said a new body sponsored by his country has agreed a framework “to lead, track and accelerate the global tourism industry’s transition to net-zero“.

Man on a mission: His Excellency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Saudi minister of tourism (Ministry of Tourism)

To explain the significance of the move, we need to go back to October, 2021.

At the inaugural Saudi Green Initiative conference, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman announced the birth of a new international body: the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC). Its headquarters would be in Saudi Arabia, with further outposts scheduled to open in cities around the world.

It has three functions. First, to share and further our knowledge about tourism and the environment. Second, to find universally accepted ways of measuring and monitoring that impact. Third, to enable the industry to do something about it.

Acronyms are inevitable in the world of international bodies. Another came into being on Earth Day (April this year). The TPCC, or Tourism Panel on Climate Change, was created to achieve the second part of that mission.

Its team of more than 60 independent researchers and academics will provide the fullest picture yet of how tourism is affecting the environment  – a picture that will be continuously updated. Their task is to look at adaptation – how businesses cope with a warming world and new government regulations; and mitigation – how they can produce fewer harmful emissions, or perhaps store what they do.

Their first job is a massive ‘stocktake’, which will report back at next year’s Cop28 in Dubai.

Dubai: the Cop roadshow comes to town in 2023

Measuring, benchmarks and audits are all very well, but what about targets?

Projections warn that tourism emissions could reach 6.5 billion metric tons by 2025 –  a 44% increase from 2013, and a rise to 13% of current global greenhouse gas emissions.

A spokesperson for the STGC says “At this stage, the focus is to provide the data and information for countries, bodies and entities to decide what targets to put in place”.

Translated: they are taking it one step at a time. But the tourism sector finally has a plan to identify what it needs to do.

It’s striking that Saudi Arabia, a country which has only very recently entered the global tourism industry, should be leading the work by sponsoring the STGC.

Tourism minister HE Al Khateeb said, “A crucial step in delivering on this mandate is for the industry and destinations to be able to track and measure their progress”.

Find out more about the MGI summit and SGI forum here: greeninitiatives.gov.sa