Travel Pledged to Help Cut Carbon Emissions. How Has It Done?

19.11.2024 - 10:35 / nytimes.com / Julia Simpson

In Baku, Azerbaijan, this week, the travel industry will have its first official day ever at the annual United Nations climate talks. At COP29, as this year’s conference is known, Wednesday has been set as a “thematic day on tourism,” and there will be high-level meetings and roundtables devoted to the tourism industry’s effects on the environment and climate change and how they might be mitigated.

Helping to frame the discussion will be the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, which was introduced by the U.N.’s World Tourism Organization at the 2021 conference to nudge the travel industry toward a more environmentally friendly future.

The declaration, originally signed by more than 300 travel companies, nonprofit organizations and government agencies, and now counting more than 900 signatories, was supposed to “secure strong actions and commitment from the tourism sector” and “accelerate climate action.” Participating travel organizations would disclose greenhouse gas emissions; take steps to decarbonize; restore and protect natural ecosystems; and collaborate to ensure best practices.

There were two core commitments. Within 12 months of signing the accord, entities would create and submit a public “climate action plan” that outlined specific actions they would take to reduce emissions. And second, signatories would halve their emissions before 2030, in order to get on track to reach net zero emissions by 2050.

How have they done?

Well, it’s a start. While many experts agree that the Glasgow Declaration was an important and necessary first step, few tourism organizations have signed on and those that did haven’t always followed through with their promises. Global emissions, meanwhile, are still on the rise.

“The Glasgow Declaration sparked a tremendous response across travel and tourism,” said Julia Simpson, the president and chief executive of the World Travel and Tourism Council, a nonprofit organization of travel businesses and a signatory of the declaration. “What the world needs now is measurable action — and there’s no time to lose.”