Climate Change and Tourism - UNEP - Division of Technology ...

140 Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges
Figure 11.12 Daily average emissions per person and emissions per tourist-day for various journeys
(emission factors as for 2005 technology)
Box 25 Dive tourism emissions
Visiting popular dive sites usually involves a flight, as many popular dive sites are located in
warm or tropical destinations. 655 To exemplify emissions caused by a dive holiday, imagine
return distances of 7,000 pkm, corresponding to a trip from the UK to Egypt, and 30.000 pkm,
corresponding to a trip from the UK to Australia. These would cause emissions of 0.8 t and 4.8 t
CO 2 . 656 If divers carry on diving equipment, this might add on the weight of the aircraft and lead
to higher fuel use. On the distance from the UK to Australia, 1 kg of additional weight will lead to
additional fuel use of approximately 0.7 kg (return flight), corresponding to emissions of almost 6
kg CO 2 -equivalent per kg of baggage.
At the destination, divers will cause additional emissions through their stay in various accommodation
establishments, using various means of transport and developing other activities (including
dive trips). Depending on how energy is generated, corresponding emissions will be in the order
of up to 120 kg CO 2 per bed night. Dive trips mostly cause emissions from the boat trip. Emissions
caused by Australian tour boat operators for example are in the order of about 60 kg of CO 2 per
trip if the boat uses a diesel engine or 27 kg CO 2 if the boat uses a petrol engine. 657 Overall, a
dive holiday may thus cause emissions of between 1.2 t and 6.8 t CO 2 . This can be compared to
globally ‘unsustainable’ emissions of about 4.3 t CO 2 per person per year.
11.3 Scenario on the Development of Emissions from Tourists
CO 2 emissions from tourism have grown steadily over the past five decades to its current estimated level
of 5% of all anthropogenic emissions of CO 2 (Section 11.2.5). In this section a projection is provided on
the development of emissions for tourist activities only (thus excluding same-day visitors). The reason
for excluding same-day visitors is that the current numbers of same-day visitors are the least certain part
of the data. There are no time-series available to base any growth of same-day visitor trips on, nor is
there any projection in the literature available, and finally, the current share of same-day in emissions
is low and expected to stay relatively low. The future growth of tourists’ emissions will depend upon
three major trends:
UNWTO, 9 July 2008
Global/capita/year
EU/capita/year
US/capita/year
Car Netherlands to southern France (15 d) per day
Rail Netherlands to the Alps (15 d) per day
Weekend break by air Netherlands to Barcelona (3 d) per day
Air Netherlands to Thailand (14 d) per day
Air Netherlands to Australia (21 d) per day
Cruise Antarctica (15 d) per day
Average tourist trip (4-5 d)
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
Emissions per year (Kg CO 2 /day)