Sustainable tourism and travel supply chain activities in the global green economy
Tuesday, 09 Dec, 2009
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The Symposium further welcomes the travel and tourism business stakeholders‟ steps towards a low carbon economy through the mitigation and adaptation of carbon emissions and other GHG gases as conveyed in the WTTC report Leading the Challenge on Climate Change.
The report identifies an aspired target of 50% reduction in carbon emissions by 2035 over 2005 levels, with an interim target of 30% by 2020 – assuming there is an international agreement – or 25% by the same year in the absence of such an agreement. The Symposium supports these targets as minimum requirements for progress on effective emissions reductions, whilst recognising that fully carbon neutral development should be developed by all tourism stakeholders within the tourism supply chain with appropriate regulatory, voluntary and support measures in place.
The Gothenburg report supports the view that, if there is going to be large-scale government spending and taxation in response to the current crises, then the tourism sector should be involved in the strategic thinking and allocation plans for the application of recovery funds. As well as stimulating sustainable growth in the tourism sector directly, the opportunity to use the sector as part of a wider package of sustainable development solutions should also be explored. In both cases the development of a global green economy provides a common vision for stakeholders from all sectors to collectively view the problems we face and then contribute with appropriate actions that will work in harmony and synergy with other stakeholder problem-solving initiatives.
The global green economy can be viewed as a means to ensure the sustainability of all sectors. No single sector solution will lead to sustainability. In such sustainable consumption and production processes, the tourism sector should therefore be considered as a key contributor to a green economy approach that promotes economic recovery and also assists the poorer countries in reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and greening their economies.
By participating in the development of the green economy, tourism can play a positive catalytic cross-sectoral role to improve the sustainability of several related sectors such as agriculture, energy, transport and construction, as well as contributing to its own sustainable sectoral development.
The Symposium discussions have looked at the type of tourism supply chain that is needed in the global green economy that would meet policy aims and targets, focusing on air and rail travel and the accommodation sector.
Transport initiatives to reduce the environmental impacts of air travel and improve the contribution of rail networks have been launched to improve the environmental footprint of the sub-sectors.
Similarly, the UNWTO‟s Hotel Energy Solutions initiative represents a further sub- sector move towards sustainability from accommodation stakeholders, and UNEP publication ‘Sowing the Seeds of Change, Integrating environmental practices in small and medium hotels’, represent a further step towards sustainability from accommodation stakeholders. The Symposium report welcomes further elaboration of these initiatives in the forthcoming UNWTO/UNEP report on the tourism sector in the green economy, as well as the European Commission‟s DG Enterprise‟s development of a series of environmental impact indicators for the sector.
Valere
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