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

168 Climate Change and Tourism – Responding to Global Challenges
12.4.1 Sustainable Demand and Consumer Choices
To reduce their carbon footprint tourists have a number of options. First, they can decide to replace a
long-distance holiday with a short-haul one. This has been actively encouraged in some countries. For
example, the President of the German Federal Environment Agency urged consumers to do so, on the
eve of Berlin’s ITB in March 2007: “Anyone who travels to South Asia by plane should be aware that he
is producing over six tons of carbon dioxide.”
Reducing the demand for aviation-based transport poses a great dilemma for tourism, especially
considering equity issues in the context of international development and poverty reduction efforts.
Much of the recent growth in tourism can be attributed to the increased accessibility of air travel to
a larger part of the population. There is, however, some evidence that a minor share of ‘hypermobile’
travellers account for the majority of the overall distances travelled. 728 This is both a challenge and an
opportunity, as addressing the travel patterns of these hypermobile travellers could lead to substantial
reductions in emissions. However, little is currently known about these travellers in terms of their travel
motivations and their willingness to reduce travel or to switch to other means of transport.
The second option for tourists is to choose an airline for its performance in fuel efficiency, environmental
initiatives and direct routing. The more stops during the journey (i.e., take-offs) the larger the carbon
footprint.
Third, tourists can consider how much luggage they want to take on their trip, particularly on longhaul
flights. Scandinavian Airlines has just increased passenger baggage allowances to 40 kg, but
environmentally responsible travellers should rather attempt to reduce the weight of their baggage. On
a flight from Europe to Australia, each kg of additional baggage carried will add an estimated 2 kg of
CO 2 emissions. Obviously, this also goes for tax-free purchases in airports or on aircraft. A bottle of wine
bought in New Zealand and transported to Europe, for instance, will demand its own weight in fuel use
to be carried along.
Fourth, for shorter distances tourists can replace air travel with energy efficient land transport, for
example train systems. A trip from southern to northern Sweden (1,000 km), for instance, will result
in emissions of less than 10 grams of CO 2 per passenger if made by train, as Swedish Railways use
exclusively renewable power generated from wind and water. An aircraft will emit almost 150 kg of CO 2
per passenger on the same journey. 729
Finally, tourists have the choice to minimise their transport emissions at the destination. Options include
the use of public land transport, renting fuel efficiency vehicles, walking and cycling, switching off
equipment in hotel rooms and supporting green businesses.
When tourists use their own vehicle to or at the destination, fuel efficiency and emissions are determined
to a large extent by driving behaviour. For example, ‘aggressive driving’ as compared with ‘restrained
driving’ increases specific fuel consumption by about 30%. The use of air-conditioning increases the
fuel bill by 10–15%, and an extra load of 100 kg increases fuel consumption by another 7–8%. 730
Changing driving behaviour was found to be among the most promising measures to reduce passenger
transportation emissions in Canada. 731
12.4.2 Carbon Offsetting
The term ‘carbon compensation’ or ‘offsetting’ means that an amount of GHG emissions equal to that
caused by a certain activity; i.e., a flight, will be reduced elsewhere. Carbon offsetting is growing rapidly,
and promoted by many actors, from Al Gore’s film “An Inconvenient Truth” to influential guidebooks
such as Lonely Planet and Rough Guide. Tourists willing to compensate their travel emissions can
calculate these with the help of an online calculator. Tourists can then choose to invest either in energyefficiency
measures (e.g., low-energy light bulbs), energy renewal (e.g., hydro-turbines), or carbon
sequestration (usually forestry projects).
UNWTO, 9 July 2008