More than 50 countries sign UN sustainable tourism

21/11/2024 6:21

        More than 50 governments have
        signed a U.N. declaration to make tourism around the globe more
        climate friendly, the United Nations said on Wednesday, in what
        it hailed as a major achievement of the climate summit in
        Azerbaijan.
        
        "At COP29 we have achieved today an historic milestone by
        being included in the UN Climate Change Conference Action Agenda
        for the first time," U.N. Executive Director for Tourism Zoritsa
        Urosevic told a news conference.
        
        The global tourism industry accounts for 3% of global GDP
        and is the source of 8.8% of greenhouse emissions, said
        Urosevic.
        
        The countries that signed the declaration on Enhanced
        Climate Action on Tourism have pledged to recognise the need to
        address tourism when drafting climate plans, such as their
        Nationally Determined Contributions. The next update of NDCs, in
        which governments describe policies to reduce emissions that
        cause global warming, are due in February.
        
        Tourism often accounts for a large share of a government's
        hard currency revenues, particularly in emerging countries, and
        can itself be highly exposed to climate events such as
        hurricanes, heatwaves and droughts.
        
        "We now understand that the future of our business depends
        on the sustainability of our actions today," said Kanan Gasimov,
        head of administration at Azerbaijan's tourism agency.
        
        The declaration was accompanied by a number of other
        initiatives, such as a framework presented by hotel industry
        body World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, aimed at measuring
        and reporting data such as greenhouse gas emissions, water
        consumption, waste and energy usage across the sector.
        
        The collated data would help the tourism industry and
        travellers understand their impact, said CEO Glenn Mandziuk.
        
        "We are an industry that has a vested interest in the
        protection of each destination," Mandziuk said on the sidelines
        of the meeting in Baku. "We have to have a conversation where we
        can play a bigger role."
        
        The group represents 55,000 hotels totalling more than 7
        million rooms and counts big names such as Accor,
        Hilton and Marriott among its members.