Earth Day news: TPCC gathering scientific knowledge on tourism and climate change in time for COP28

A stock­take of tour­ism-related cli­mate sci­ence, indic­at­ors of sec­tor cli­mate risk, and pro­gress on cli­mate action is a key first deliv­er­able for the Tour­ism Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (TPCC) in 2023. 

The TPCC has announced this ahead of Earth Day this Sat­urday, April 22.

The first TPCC Stock­take will be the basis for future sci­ence analysis.

Sixty-six lead­ing cli­mate sci­ent­ists and tour­ism experts from around the world are con­trib­ut­ing to the Stock­take. They are also con­trib­ut­ing to the TPCC’s mis­sion to sup­port tourism’s trans­ition to net-zero green­house gas emis­sions and cli­mate-resi­li­ent devel­op­ment, in line with Par­is Cli­mate Agree­ment targets.

The TPCC will form­ally present its first Stock­take in Novem­ber at the United Nations Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence (COP28) in the United Arab Emirates.

Research­ers who are not already among the TPCC’s 66 sci­ent­ists and experts will have an oppor­tun­ity to con­trib­ute dur­ing a research sym­posi­um at the Uni­ver­sity of Sur­rey, Eng­land, on July 6. The TPCC will then present the pre­lim­in­ary find­ings of the Stock­take in New York dur­ing UN Cli­mate Week in September. 

The Stock­take will present all the pos­it­ive and neg­at­ive change indic­at­ors that will serve as per­form­ance bench­marks for travel & tour­ism cli­mate action in the future.

Next year (2024), the TPCC will fol­low up with a com­pre­hens­ive assess­ment of what we know about tour­ism and cli­mate change based on all of the sci­entif­ic lit­er­at­ure and oth­er know­ledge it has gathered. That will be the first TPCC Sci­ence Assess­ment.

The TPCC Sci­ence Assess­ment will inter­rog­ate the inter­sec­tion of cli­mate and tour­ism in rela­tion to the Par­is 1.5°C scen­ario as well as the Inter­gov­ern­ment­al Pan­el on Cli­mate Change’s latest assess­ments and recom­mend­a­tions on emis­sions reduc­tion targets.

Identifying knowledge gaps and building capacity for change

Inspired by the Inter­gov­ern­ment­al Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (IPCC), the TPCC was cre­ated by the Saudi Ara­bia-based Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Glob­al Cen­ter (STGC) to oper­ate inde­pend­ently and impar­tially, and to build capa­city to provide lead­ing sci­ence to inform tour­ism cli­mate action across the world.

Launched at the United Nations Cli­mate Change Con­fer­ence (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in Novem­ber 2022, the TPCC is designed to meet the urgent need for trus­ted peer-reviewed inform­a­tion on the inter­ac­tion between tour­ism and cli­mate change.

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”. 

Under the lead­er­ship of the TPCC’s Exec­ut­ive Board — Pro­fess­ors Daniel Scott (Canada), Susanne Beck­en (Aus­tralia), and Geof­frey Lip­man (Bel­gi­um) — 66 lead­ing experts from around the world are con­trib­ut­ing to out­puts that sup­port tourism’s trans­ition to net-zero emis­sions and cli­mate-resi­li­ent development. 

Most (36) of the 66 tour­ism sci­ent­ists and experts con­trib­ute to TPCC’s three work­ing groups, which are focused on cli­mate change adapt­a­tion, emis­sions reduc­tion, and tour­ism policy and planning.

The oth­er 30 experts, who sit on TPCC’s “Con­trib­ut­ing Experts” Group, provide broad­er input and also add to the peer review process.

Finally, the work will be sup­por­ted by an Advis­ory Board, which includes rep­res­ent­at­ives of the tour­ism sector’s diverse stake­hold­ers. The Board will meet for the first time in May to provide an addi­tion­al sup­port and engage­ment network.

In addi­tion to Stock­takes and Sci­ence Assess­ments, TPCC will also pro­duce Hori­zon Papers based on stra­tegic know­ledge gaps it iden­ti­fies. At its launch at COP27, TPCC pub­lished the first two Hori­zon Papers; on avi­ation emis­sions and on fin­an­cial risk.

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. 

Con­tact: Secretariat@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 organisations.