Pledges to slash greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions fell like rain at the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow this week, with the UK government due to weigh in on ‘Transport Day’ on Wednesday.
The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) joined UN climate organisations in launching a ‘Net Zero Roadmap’ on Tuesday, acknowledging the industry is responsible for 8%-10% of GHG emissions.
However, transport secretary Grant Shapps was quoted as saying that flying is not the “ultimate evil”.
Speaking about plans to reach net zero emissions and unveiling progress on proposals for greener transport, Shapps said travel should be “guilt-free”.
Shapps, quoted by the Telegraph, said: “There are some changes in the way we live our lives. One of those changes should not be the inability to go and visit your friends and family and do business.”
He added: “I believe, as transport secretary, that we can get to guilt-free travel in this country. There’s been an idea that’s been allowed to percolate, that somehow if we’re going to meet all these different carbon commitments we are going to need to get to the point where we all stay home, that travel is somehow something which attracts great guilt.
“It gets worse the further you travel, so flying is, of course, the ultimate evil as it’s presented, and that’s just not what we believe as the British government.”
Members of cruise association Clia agreed on Monday to pursue ‘net zero’ sailing by 2050 and a 40% fleet-wide reduction of carbon emissions by 2030.
Wednesday was due to see the launch of a ‘Clydebank Declaration’ on zero-emission shipping and the establishment of a new International Aviation Climate Ambition Coalition of states led by the UK, with a declaration on emissions reduction.
The Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), a lobby group which works with the industry, described the coalition as “a useful initiative” but said: “The government hopes to head off criticism and promote the idea that the UK is leading efforts to decarbonise the sector.”
It noted the government has committed to include aviation and shipping in targets under the UK Climate Change Act but said: “Ministers have not set out a credible plan for achieving this. The government published a ‘jet zero’ strategy last autumn which talked about zero emission aircraft and new technologies. But so far it has no proposals for overcoming the cost and other barriers to their roll-out.”
The WTTC’s Net Zero Roadmap, produced with the UN Environment Programme, UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and consultancy Accenture, warns of the impacts of climate change on travel and offers guidelines for reaching net zero by 2050 for accommodation, tour operators, aviation, cruise and travel intermediaries.
WTTC president Julia Simpson warned of “rising sea levels, deforestation and loss of animal and plant species” and said: “Communities that rely on tourism are first in line to see the impact.”
The roadmap, produced in collaboration with WWF, Iata and Clia among others, calls on governments to give travel “the same level of support offered to other sectors”.
Emily Weiss, head of Accenture’s travel industry group, described it as a “pragmatic but ambitious course of action”, saying: “It identifies the levers where travel can turn a corner on emissions.”
This week’s announcements followed the ‘Glasgow Declaration’ issued last week by more than 300 signatories including Aito, Etoa, VisitScotland, Skyscanner and WTTC, pledging “to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible before 2050”.
Launching the declaration, Intrepid Travel co-founder and chairman Darrell Wade urged industry colleagues to “sign now”, saying: “Climate change is an existential crisis. If we don’t fix it, we don’t have an industry.”
The Sustainable Hospitality Alliance (SHA) of major hotel groups also announced a ‘Pathway to Net Positive Hospitality’ to be launched in March 2022, and a coalition of destinations including the UK, France and Spain unveiled a new Sustainable Tourism Global Center in Saudi Arabia.
Negotiators from 197 parties are in intensive talks in the final days of Cop26 to reach agreement on a range of key issues, including a common time frame for national commitments on emissions reductions and agreed methodology for countries to report on their climate action.
They are also working to agree progress on finance for nations most vulnerable to climate change and to address the issue of loss and damage in developing countries.