Here’s What Stepping Up on Climate Change Means for Global Tourism
Photo Credit: A pre-pandemic beach view from Barbados, a signatory to the Glasgow Declaration Flickr Commons / David Stanley
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It's a historic moment for the industry, with climate now sitting at the top of the global tourism agenda, even if many more stakeholders are yet to join the party. But rallying behind the climate emergency might just be the thing that resolves tourism’s many woes, everywhere.
After years of collective silence and inertia from most businesses on climate action, the travel industry has reached a turning point. For the first time, more than 300 players in global tourism have agreed to stand behind a single roadmap addressing climate change.
By signing the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, every signatory makes a public commitment to cut its emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and to reach net zero by 2050. An effort originally spearheaded by Tourism Declares A Climate Emergency, the declaration officially launched on Thursday at COP26.
The significance of this effort is also historic in that it will be collaboratively led by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), two of travel’s leading bodies that had failed to align on key issues in recent years.
"We are launching this action and this declaration together and this is again a nice and good beginning of
