Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions

2025-01-08T07:27:55Z

"Tourism has a critical role to play in global carbon emissions pathway. This study estimates the global tourism carbon footprint and identifies the key drivers using environmentally extended input-output modelling. The results indicate that global tourism emissions grew 3.5% p.a. between 2009-2019, double that of the worldwide economy, reaching 5.2 Gt CO₂-e or 8.8% of total global GHG emissions in 2019. The primary drivers of emissions growth are slow technology efficiency gains (0.3% p.a.) combined with sustained high growth in tourism demand (3.8% p.a. in constant 2009 prices). Tourism emissions are associated with alarming distributional inequalities. Under both destination- and resident-based accounting, the twenty highest-emitting countries contribute three-quarters of the global footprint. The disparity in per-capita tourism emissions between high- and low-income nations now exceeds two orders of magnitude. National tourism decarbonisation strategies will require demand volume thresholds to be defined to align global tourism with the Paris Agreement."

Tourism Sustainability Certifications Alliance TSCA launched

2025-02-10T09:48:34Z

27 January 2025

"The world’s leading travel & tourism Certification Organisations have today announced the launch of the Tourism Sustainability Certifications Alliance (TSCA), a registered association dedicated to fostering a global tourism industry that thrives on sustainability.
With sustainability being embraced by all major industries, travel and tourism businesses are calling for simpler solutions to assist with sustainable management, attaining independent certification, and achieving continuous improvement. At the same time, the popularity of sustainability is causing a proliferation of greenwashing and targeting travellers with unsubstantiated green claims."

TSCA Chairperson, Elissa Keenan said, “Our industry and travellers are demanding a transparent system of certification that can be trusted to promote the best in sustainable tourism and eliminate greenwashing. The TSCA has been incorporated by its founding members as a collaborative certification platform for the tourism industry and to ensure that travellers make informed choices based on reliable sustainability standards.”

Founding members are:

Biosphere: Instituto de Turismo Responsable; Ecotourism Australia; Foundation for Environmental Education (Blue Flag and Green Key); Good Travel Seal; Green Globe Certification, Green Key Global; TourCert; Travelife for Accommodation; and Travelife for Tour Operators.

See more on: https://tourismsustainability.org/

Tourism2030 - January

Drivers of global tourism carbon emissions

Tourism Sustainability Certifications Alliance TSCA launched