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

•
•
UNWTO, 9 July 2008
Second International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism
take into consideration local and traditional knowledge to develop coping and adaptation
strategies;
develop replicable methodologies and share knowledge across nature-based destinations.
1.2.2 Mitigation Responses in Tourism Sub-Sectors
1.2.2.1 Transportation
Conclusions:
Transportation causes around 75% of the CO 2 emissions generated by tourism, with aviation
representing the bulk part of it (40%). Although tourism transport has a relatively small share in
current global emissions, there is a need to develop effective mitigation measures, considering
its projected dynamic growth. In the mitigation efforts technological development is still a key
tool, but it is unable to solve the problem of climate change on its own. Therefore, for effective
mitigation in the transport sector there is a need to implement a mix of measures, including
technological improvements, regulatory and market based measures, as well as behavior changes.
In any market-based measures the position of developing countries should be considered carefully
to ensure that poverty reduction objectives are not jeopardized – which might imply increasing
flights to deliver tourism exports.
Recommended measures:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Create a fleet renewal fund;
provide incentives for increased rate of technological development;
increase efficiency in routing and air traffic management systems;
develop and install global guidance for off-setting schemes specifically for use amongst
businesses;
engage an in-depth assessment of the potential impacts of market-based instruments and levies on
the different components of the tourism industry (accommodation, tour operators, travel agencies,
airlines, railway companies, coach business, ferries, etc.) and on different market segments (shorthaul,
mid and long-haul, developed and developing countries, domestic and international, etc).
Especially for open and closed trading systems, emission reduction incentives, emission taxation
and trading can be considered;
encourage partnerships between different transport and tourism stakeholders with the objective to
reduce emissions through optimizing the value chain;
promote the use of public transport by integrated actions to boost the use of train and coach in
developed countries (investment in infrastructure such as large scale high speed train, improvement
of international train booking systems, regional train and transport ‘on demand’, improve intermodal
connections) and actions to safeguard and improve the still highly used rail and coach
systems in most developing countries;
improve consumer awareness and transparency by indicating emissions on transport tickets and
product brochures;
create a standard for carbon footprint labeling on all tourism products, like transport tickets,
accommodations, activities and packages;
involve destinations through actions to create and improve low-carbon transport access (like the
Alpine Pearls Project and the Sri Lanka ‘Earth Lung’ initiative).
9