Unprecedented Tourism Panel on Climate Change unveiled today at COP27


Tourism Panel on Climate Change (TPCC) unveiled at COP27
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  • The ‘Found­a­tion Frame­work’ for the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) announced dur­ing COP27 
  • Cre­ated by the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Cen­ter, TPCC will devel­op indic­at­ors to accel­er­ate tour­ism cli­mate action 
  • TPCC will advance tourism’s pro­gress towards Par­is Cli­mate Agree­ment goals 

NOVEMBER 10 2022, SHARM EL-SHEIKH: The Exec­ut­ive Board of the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) presen­ted a ‘Found­a­tion Frame­work’ today at the UN Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh.

The Found­a­tion Frame­work sets out key mile­stones for the first-of-its-kind initiative.

The Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change rep­res­ents a new era of glob­al col­lab­or­a­tion to provide vital inde­pend­ent and impar­tial met­rics that will sup­port the tour­ism industry’s trans­ition to net-zero emis­sions and cli­mate-resi­li­ent development. 

TPCC’s mis­sion is “to inform and rap­idly advance sci­ence-based cli­mate action across the glob­al tour­ism sys­tem in sup­port of the goals of the Par­is Cli­mate Agreement”. 

The TPCC brings togeth­er more than 60 lead­ing experts from over 30 coun­tries, and from across aca­demia, busi­ness, and civil soci­ety, under the lead­er­ship of Exec­ut­ive Board mem­bers Pro­fess­ors Daniel Scott, Susanne Beck­en and Geof­frey Lipman. 

The three presen­ted the ‘Found­a­tion Frame­work’ dur­ing a tech­nic­al ses­sion at COP27 organ­ised by the Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Cen­ter (STGC) to facil­it­ate a new era of cli­mate-resi­li­ent tour­ism that will achieve zero emis­sions by 2050 and advance the Sus­tain­able Devel­op­ment Goals. 

Led by Saudi Ara­bia, the STGC is the world’s first multi-coun­try, multi-stake­hold­er glob­al coali­tion to lead, accel­er­ate, and track the tour­ism industry’s trans­ition to net-zero emis­sions, as well as drive action to pro­tect nature and sup­port communities. 

The Found­a­tion Frame­work out­lines TPCC’s three major outputs:

  1. Cli­mate Action Stock Take Reports — The TPCC will devel­op a new set of peer-reviewed and open-source indic­at­ors that track import­ant con­nec­tions between cli­mate change and tour­ism, includ­ing pro­gress on sec­tor com­mit­ments in sup­port of Par­is Cli­mate Agree­ment goals. TPCC will pub­lish an update of these met­rics every three years, with the first to be delivered at COP28 in 2023. 
  2. Sci­ence Assess­ment — The TPCC will under­take the first com­pre­hens­ive syn­thes­is in more than 15 years of the state of tour­ism-rel­ev­ant know­ledge about cli­mate change emis­sion trends, impacts, future risks, and a focus on mit­ig­a­tion and adapt­a­tion solu­tions. This assess­ment will include an open and trans­par­ent review pro­cess and will be pub­lished in time for COP29 in 2024. 
  3. Hori­zon Papers — The TPCC will identi­fy stra­tegic know­ledge gaps to meet the sector’s Par­is Cli­mate Agree­ment oblig­a­tions through expert reviews and new ana­lys­is to sup­port policy and decision makers. 

HE Ahmed Al Khateeb, Min­is­ter of Tour­ism, King­dom of Saudi Ara­bia said: “The Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Center’s man­date is to lead, track and accel­er­ate the glob­al tour­ism industry’s trans­ition to net-zero. A cru­cial step in deliv­er­ing on this man­date is for the industry and des­tin­a­tions to be able to track and meas­ure their pro­gress. Com­mis­sion­ing the TPCC enables stake­hold­ers — large and small — across the sec­tor to access the inform­a­tion needed to meas­ure their pro­gress towards net-zero emissions.”

HE Glor­ia Guevara, Chief Spe­cial Advisor at the Min­istry of Tour­ism of Saudi Ara­bia, reit­er­ated: “The STGC’s aim is to inform and encour­age stake­hold­ers to take urgent action to address the cli­mate crisis. To this end, the TPCC will pro­duce a vital sci­entif­ic bench­mark against which we can meas­ure pro­gress in the sector’s trans­ition to net-zero emis­sions and cli­mate readiness.”

Tourism Panel on Climate Change Executive Board members Professors Daniel Scott, Susanne Becken and Geoffrey Lipman
Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) Exec­ut­ive Board mem­bers (L‑R) Pro­fess­ors Daniel Scott, Susanne Beck­en, and Geof­frey Lipman.

Pro­fess­or Scott said: “The cli­mate crisis demands a whole-of-soci­ety response. The tour­ism sec­tor has embraced sci­ence-based emis­sion tar­gets and this ini­ti­at­ive will deliv­er vital data and research to accel­er­ate the trans­ition of tour­ism to the net-zero eco­nomy of the future. 

“Hav­ing worked as a cli­mate change aca­dem­ic for over 20 years, I am delighted to be part of this bold com­mit­ment of such a large and ded­ic­ated group of tour­ism-focused cli­mate sci­ent­ists to inject vital new col­lab­or­a­tions that will inform and empower intens­i­fied sec­tor-wide cli­mate action.”

Pro­fess­or Beck­en said: “What we know from sci­ence is that the gate is clos­ing on the path­ways to save human­ity from the cata­stroph­ic events caused by cli­mate change. 

“Tour­ism can be a key play­er in advan­cing cli­mate-resi­li­ent devel­op­ment, and con­nect­ing the best know­ledge we have with tour­ism policy and action. Ulti­mately, every frac­tion of a degree of warm­ing saved will help save lives, live­li­hoods, and ecosystems.”

Pro­fess­or Lip­man said: “TPCC can provide the clear met­rics for tour­ism that are urgently needed, on which real action must be taken, to play our part in the glob­al response to the exist­en­tial cli­mate crisis. TPCC will deliv­er timely, object­ive, sci­ence-based assess­ments that inform and enhance decision-mak­ing towards Par­is 1.5.

“As the UN Sec­ret­ary Gen­er­al has warned, the cli­mate crisis is a ‘Code Red Emer­gency for human­ity’. To play their part, tour­ism stake­hold­ers need to act based on the best object­ive assess­ment of the impacts and chal­lenges. This is what TPCC will provide.”

About the Tourism Panel on Climate Change (TPCC)

The Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) is a neut­ral body of more than 60 tour­ism and cli­mate sci­ent­ists and experts who will provide a cur­rent-state assess­ment of the sec­tor and object­ive met­rics to pub­lic and private sec­tor decision makers world­wide. It will pro­duce reg­u­lar assess­ments in line with the UNFCCC COP pro­grams and the Inter­gov­ern­ment­al Pan­el on Cli­mate Change. 

Con­tactsecretariat@tpcc.info | Web­site: www.tpcc.info 

About the Sustainable Tourism Global Center (STGC)

The Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Cen­ter (STGC) is the world’s first multi-coun­try, multi-stake­hold­er glob­al coali­tion that will lead, accel­er­ate, and track the tour­ism industry’s trans­ition to net-zero emis­sions, as well as drive action to pro­tect nature and sup­port com­munit­ies. It will enable the trans­ition while deliv­er­ing know­ledge, tools, fin­an­cing mech­an­isms and innov­a­tion stim­u­la­tion into the tour­ism sector.

The STGC was announced by His Roy­al High­ness the Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Sal­man dur­ing the Saudi Green Ini­ti­at­ive in Octo­ber 2021 in Riy­adh, Saudi Ara­bia. His Excel­lency Ahmed Al Khateeb, Min­is­ter of Tour­ism for Saudi Ara­bia then led a pan­el dis­cus­sion dur­ing COP26 (Novem­ber 2021) in Glas­gow, United King­dom, to elab­or­ate on how the Cen­ter will deliv­er on its man­date with found­ing coun­try rep­res­ent­at­ives and experts from part­ner inter­na­tion­al organizations. 

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