Back to the future: Time for more ambitious climate action from travel & tourism
President of “Good Tourism” Partner SUNx Malta, Geoffrey Lipman, reports: “UN Climate Chief Patricia Espinosa has formally confirmed to our SDG 17 partner Gloria Guevara at the WTTC top level support for the SUNx Malta Climate Friendly Travel Registry, and urged travel & tourism organisations to file their carbon reduction plans.” Here is Professor Lipman’s written statement about the news:
Let’s start with aviation which is pivotal for Travelism (travel & tourism) and which has neanderthal ambitions of a 50% reduction on 2005 CO2 levels by 2050. This was only relevant in 2005 when it was crafted by the aviation sector’s International Air Transport Association (IATA) and its daughter organisation Air Transport Action Group (ATAG), sold aggressively, and fed into the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) process over many years of multifaceted lobbying.
Times and needs have changed. Other sectoral organisations, like the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) with its Travel & Tourism Climate Neutral 2050 and Airports Council International (ACI) and its Airports Net Zero 2050, have adopted carbon targets that the rest of the world have embraced.
With aircraft manufacturers Airbus and Boeing recently targeting new advanced design and propulsion capacities by the mid 2030s, now is a big opportunity for new IATA director general Willie Walsh to bring his One World Net Zero 2050 vision to the sector at large.
At SUNx Malta — a legacy to continue the vision of the late Maurice Strong; climate and sustainability champion for half a century — we have been calling for a Zero Carbon 2050 Aviation Moonshot since 2015; a Kennedyesque planned basket of very strong continuous actions across the sector — by government, industry, and civil society — with very ambitious greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets.
To “put our money where our mouth is” at a broader level, we have also been collaborating closely with WTTC, to undertake an annual sector-wide review of Climate Response Ambitions and to host a Think Tank to explore change needs and directions. We have built a United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)-linked Registry to help companies and communities create increasingly ambitious plans and file them for transparent metrics.
This Climate Friendly Travel Registry helps companies and communities to turn bold climate declarations into concrete UNFCCC-compliant action. It has recently been recognised as such by UN Climate Leader Patricia Espinosa in an exchange with WTTC’s Gloria Guevara: “I look forward to seeing travel & tourism organisations participating in this sectoral Climate Friendly Travel Registry, as well as redoubling their efforts to ensure a climate neutral and resilient world by 2050 at the latest.”
We have created the concept of Climate Friendly Travel as a systems approach — low carbon : SDG-linked : Paris1.5 aligned — which focuses on company and community action and education, launching a world first CFT graduate level Diploma with ITS, the Institute of Tourism Studies, Malta in 2020 and SEYS (Strong Earth Youth Summit) in April 2021, believing in the potential of the next generation to pull us through to a better future and guide travel & tourism into the framework of the UN 2030 (SDG) / 2050 (Paris. 1.5) Green & Clean Plan for Humanity, which is where we must aspire to be.
Professor Geoffrey Lipman
President SUNx Malta
About SUNx Malta
SUNx Malta is a not-for-profit, EU-based organisation that has partnered with the government of Malta. SUNx has created a unique, low-cost, system to help travel & tourism companies and communities transform to the New Climate Economy. The SUNx Malta “Green & Clean, Climate Friendly Travel System” is Action and Education focused – supporting today’s companies and communities to deliver on their proclaimed ambitions and encouraging tomorrow’s young leaders to prepare for rewarding careers across the sector.
