Tourism climate action now for small island developing states: SUNx Malta

The cli­mate crisis is most chal­len­ging and imme­di­ate for small island devel­op­ing states, which have con­trib­uted the least to the prob­lem but are the most exposed to its consequences. 

This is accord­ing to Geof­frey Lip­man, Pres­id­ent of SUN^x Malta, who key­noted a ses­sion on cli­mate change and tour­ism at the United Nations’ Small Island Devel­op­ing States (SIDS4) 2024 Sum­mit in Anti­gua and Bar­buda yesterday. 

Pro­fess­or Lip­man called for the tour­ism industry to take imme­di­ate action, quot­ing the Inter­gov­ern­ment­al Pan­el on Cli­mate Change (IPCC)‘s recom­mend­a­tion to peak green­house gas emis­sions by 2025 to have any chance of lim­it­ing glob­al warm­ing to 1.5°C by 2050.

Collaborations for climate-friendly travel

SUN^x Malta and the China Biod­iversity and Green Devel­op­ment Found­a­tion (CBCGDF) co-hos­ted the SIDS4 Sum­mit ses­sion. The col­lab­or­a­tion, inspired by their mutu­al friend and ment­or, the late Maurice Strong, also under­scored the crit­ic­al role China will play in the glob­al response to the exist­en­tial cli­mate crisis.

SUN^x Malta’s ini­ti­at­ives, in col­lab­or­a­tion with the Malta Tour­ism Author­ity, focus on the world’s poorest coun­tries and small islands. These include cre­at­ing the world’s first Cli­mate Friendly Travel (CFT) post-gradu­ate Dip­loma, estab­lish­ing a Registry for Cli­mate Action Plans, and launch­ing social enter­prises to strengthen the vir­tu­ous circle of CFT — Paris1.5: SDG linked: Nature positive.

Clear and present danger

Lipman’s key­note address high­lighted the urgent need for cli­mate action in the tour­ism sec­tor, par­tic­u­larly in the world’s most vul­ner­able countries. 

He poin­ted to the increas­ing fre­quency and sever­ity of wild­fires, floods, air pol­lu­tion, rising sea levels, intensi­fy­ing droughts, and extreme weath­er pat­terns affect­ing tour­ism des­tin­a­tions and ori­gin mar­kets alike as evid­ence of the crisis.

Prof Lip­man emphas­ised the danger posed by cli­mate change den­iers and status quo apo­lo­gists, call­ing for hon­or­able, clear-minded real­ists and lead­ers who pri­or­it­ise the pre­cau­tion­ary prin­ciple and the well-being of future generations. 

He expressed his delight in col­lab­or­at­ing with CBCGDF, recog­nising Chin­a’s poten­tial to be a world lead­er in the neces­sary and urgent transformation.

The ses­sion served as a power­ful remind­er of the imme­di­ate need for col­lect­ive action to address the cli­mate crisis and its impact on the tour­ism sec­tor, par­tic­u­larly in small island devel­op­ing states.

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About SUN^x Malta

SUN^x Malta is a leg­acy for the late Maurice Strong, fath­er of sus­tain­able devel­op­ment. Its goal is to advance Cli­mate Friendly Travel (CFT) ~ Par­is 1.5 and SDG linked. 

SUN^x has a core part­ner­ship with Malta’s Min­istry of Tour­ism and Malta Tour­ism Author­ity, to advance CFT, to cre­ate a UNFC­CC-linked CFT Registry, and to pro­mote CFT Edu­ca­tion. It plans to put in place 100,000 Strong Cli­mate Cham­pi­ons across all UN States by 2030.

Don’t miss oth­er “GT” Part­ner mes­sages from SUN^x Malta

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Featured image (top of post)

Anti­gua port image by neufal54 (CC0) via Pixabay. “GT” added the SUN^x Malta CFT logo.

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