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Intrepid Travel champions industry decarbonisation guide as Cop26 kicks off

Intrepid Travel is championing travel industry-wide decarbonisation efforts by releasing a “comprehensive” measurement guide to empower tour operators to decarbonise their operations.

The guide, released to coincide with the Cop26 climate change conference in Glasgow,aims toempower any operator with the ability to start measuring their business and their supply chain’s carbon footprint. 

It is written by Intrepid’s environmental impact specialist, Dr Susanne Etti, and produced in partnership with industry decarbonisation collective Tourism Declares.

It is one sector-specific resource that will be released at Cop26 to empower tourism businesses to decarbonise, with others including a net-zero methodology for hotels and other resources.

Etti said: “You can’t reduce what you don’t measure and there are few travel companies that really understand the impact they’re having on the planet. 

“The critical step is measuring and then reducing your emission. Without that baseline, it is extremely hard to understand the impact of any decarbonisation actions. 

“We wanted to create a science-led tool to move the needle on decarbonisation. We cannot solve the climate crisis alone and this type of industry-wide collaboration is critical.” 

Company co-founder and chairman Darrell Wade is attending Cop26 to advocate for ambitious industry-wide tourism action on climate change.

He is attending in his capacity as vice-chair of the World Travel & Tourism Council and chair of its sustainability committee. 

Wade has been involved in the development of the Glasgow Declaration, which aims to raise the climate ambition of tourism stakeholders and secure action to support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and reach net zero as soon as possible before 2050. 

The declaration will be officially launched at Cop26 on Thursday ( November 4), with Intrepid Travel a signatory. 

Intrepid Travel has been actively collaborating with partners, B Corps and businesses over the past year to advocate for stronger government policies on climate change in the run-up to Cop26.

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