More than 50 countries sign UN sustainable tourism declaration

Accor SA

20/11/2024 17:08

By Karin Strohecker
       BAKU, Nov 20 (Reuters) - More than 50 governments have
signed a U.N. declaration to make tourism around the globe more
climate friendly, the United Nations said on Wednesday, in what
it hailed as a major achievement of the climate summit in
Azerbaijan.
    "At COP29 we have achieved today an historic milestone by
being included in the UN Climate Change Conference Action Agenda
for the first time," U.N. Executive Director for Tourism Zoritsa
Urosevic told a news conference. 
    The global tourism industry accounts for 3% of global GDP
and is the source of 8.8% of greenhouse emissions, said
Urosevic.
    The countries that signed the declaration on Enhanced
Climate Action on Tourism have pledged to recognise the need to
address tourism when drafting climate plans, such as their
Nationally Determined Contributions. The next update of NDCs, in
which governments describe policies to reduce emissions that
cause global warming, are due in February.
    Tourism often accounts for a large share of a government's
hard currency revenues, particularly in emerging countries, and
can itself be highly exposed to climate events such as
hurricanes, heatwaves and droughts. 
    "We now understand that the future of our business depends
on the sustainability of our actions today," said Kanan Gasimov,
head of administration at Azerbaijan's tourism agency.
    The declaration was accompanied by a number of other
initiatives, such as a framework presented by hotel industry
body World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, aimed at measuring
and reporting data such as greenhouse gas emissions, water
consumption, waste and energy usage across the sector.
    The collated data would help the tourism industry and
travellers understand their impact, said CEO Glenn Mandziuk.
    "We are an industry that has a vested interest in the
protection of each destination," Mandziuk said on the sidelines
of the meeting in Baku. "We have to have a conversation where we
can play a bigger role."
    The group represents 55,000 hotels totalling more than 7
million rooms and counts big names such as Accor  ACCP.PA ,
Hilton  HLT.N  and Marriott  MAR.O  among its members.

 (Reporting by Karin Strohecker
Editing by Peter Graff)
 ((karin.strohecker@thomsonreuters.com; +442075427262; Reuters
Messaging: karin.strohecker.reuters.com@reuters.net))