A Gulf Hotel Just Signed the World’s Leading Tourism Climate Pact. Its Home Country Runs on Oil and Gas
Photo Credit: Coral Beach Resort Sharjah has signed up to a global climate pact pledging to halve emissions by 203 HMH Hotel Group
Skift Take
Coral Beach Resort Sharjah is the first hotel in the Middle East to sign the Glasgow Declaration. But the real question for hotel owners is whether these pledges translate into lower costs or stronger demand in a region still heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
Coral Beach Resort Sharjah has become the first hotel in the Middle East to sign the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, according to Skift’s analysis of the initiative’s signatories.
Several other businesses in Israel and Lebanon have already signed up, but so far, neither country has added any hotels to the signatory list. The move puts the UAE property alongside more than 800 global tourism businesses that have pledged to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero before 2050.
But it also points to a harder, more consequential question for hotel owners across the Gulf: how decarbonization works out in a market where extreme heat drives enormous energy costs, the grid runs on oil and gas, and most sustainability pledges lack detailed plans or measurable returns.
The Glasgow Declaration, launched at the UN Climate Change Conference i
