The United Nations announced on Wednesday that more than 50 countries have signed a UN Declaration to make tourism around globe more climate-friendly. It was hailed by the UN as a major accomplishment of the climate summit held in Azerbaijan.
Zoritsa Uroesevic, UN Executive Director for Tourism, said at a press conference that “we have achieved an historic milestone today by being included for the first time in the UN Climate Change Conference Action Agenda”.
Urosevic said that the global tourism industry is responsible for 3% of the global GDP, and 8.8% of greenhouse gas emissions.
The countries who signed the declaration on Enhanced Climate Action on Tourism pledged to acknowledge the need to address the tourism issue when drafting their climate plans, including their Nationally Determinated Contributions. The next update to the NDCs (in which governments describe their policies to reduce emissions causing global warming) is due in February.
Tourism is a major source of revenue for governments, especially in emerging countries. It can also be a high-risk sector due to climate events like hurricanes, heatwaves, and droughts.
Kanan Gasimov is the head of administration for the Azerbaijan Tourism Agency. By joining the UNGC NIA reaffirms their commitment to aligning their operations and strategies with the Ten Principles of the Global Compact.
NIA commits to transparency in reporting its progress on areas such as anti-corruption, labor relations, environmental responsibility and labor relations. The declaration was accompanied with a number of initiatives, including a framework presented to the hotel industry by World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance.
This framework aims to measure and report data such as greenhouse gases emissions, water consumption and waste, and energy usage in the sector. Mandziuk stated on the sidelines at the meeting in Baku that “we are an industry with a vested-interest in the protection of every destination.”
“We need to start a conversation about how we can be more involved.”
The group includes 55,000 hotels with more than 7,000,000 rooms, including big names like Accor Hilton and Marriott.
