Beyond Greening - Tourism Watch

Beyond Greening: Reflections on Tourism in the Rio-Process | Positioningpapertourism compared to those that directly benefit from the sector through employment or thesupply of goods and services.There are countless examples of the ways in which unplanned or forced tourism developmentresults in environmental degradation, social exploitation and human rights violations. Theimpacts of climate change will exacerbate these impacts and amplify conflicts over water,energy and other resources.A starting point for resolving the climate and poverty challenge for the tourism sector could bethe AGF’s recommendation to ensure "no net incidence" for developing countries resultingfrom any measures that might generate funding for mitigation and adaptation frominternational transport. Within this concept of "no net incidence" it would be possible toprovide an annual rebate for developing countries to neutralize any economic burdenresulting from a decline in tourism arrivals. The remaining revenue, mainly from developedcountries, would be earmarked for climate change action in developing countries. Further, tominimize the potential negative consequences on the most vulnerable developing countries,the approach of the “de minimis thresholds” should be applied. The effect of these thresholdsshould be to exempt traffic to and/or from Small Island Development States (SIDS) and LeastDeveloped Countries (LDC). States with less than one percent of global aviation activitywould also be exempt from market-based measures. This would mean that while regulativemeasures would apply only to an estimated 22 states, they would capture about 80 percent ofthe emissions from international aviation.The European Union's Emission Trading Scheme (ETS)The European Union has moved forward in including aviation into their emission tradingscheme (ETS). After years of unsuccessful negotiations under the UNFCCC, the EU is the firstregion to tackle emissions caused by aviation in a binding regime. There is still a need toimprove the scheme, but it is a first step in the right direction towards carbon inventory andreduction which will hopefully lead to a global sectoral approach to mitigate emissions causedby global aviation. Even though the level of ambition is very low, the EU's unilateral move toinclude aviation into the ETS has met with fierce resistance from a large number of countries,including many developing ones. With effect from 1st January 2012, airlines flying into andout of Europe are included in the ETS. 85 percent of the emission permits will be providedfree of charge, 15 percent will be put up for auction. The targets of the EU are not veryambitious though, and at the same time countries such as the United States, China, and Indiaare strongly against the EU's "unilateral barriers to trade". The costs, however, are likely to bepassed on to the passengers anyway.The private sectorThe tourism industry is aware of the dangerous link between tourism and climate change.Well-meant initiatives are started not only to adapt tourism businesses to the changing climatein order to protect their business interests, but also to reduce emissions. But on the mitigationside, the initiatives are overrun by the massive growth in emissions caused by aviation.Voluntary measures by the private sector have failed and global warming does not leave moretime for us to raise awareness and motivate the private sector to reduce their emissions.Binding measures are urgent.How to move forwardThe conflict between tourism, climate change and development can be handled if allstakeholders acknowledge that climate regulations must not conflict with development goalsand disadvantage people in the South economically. The Conference of the Parties must50