| 4 September 2010 |
| ECOT wants tourism industry to come under emission regulations |
CHIANG MAI, Thailand (APEN) – An ecumenical organization concerned with the negative impact of tourism has called for an “urgent paradigm shift” in the tourism industry
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Describing the tourism industry as “a significant contributor to climate change,” the Ecumenical Coalition on Tourism (ECOT) said that tourism industry must come under emission regulations.
“Binding reduction targets must be compulsorily imposed – 40% by 2020, with a base year of 1990,” ECOT said in a statement.
ECOT wanted the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) to set for its members clear emission reduction targets with timelines, instead of leaving it to self regulation, which is ineffective and unacceptable.
The ecumenical organization demanded accurate and reliable methods to calculate carbon and non-carbon emissions in tourism and added that social and environmental disclosures of tourism practices, like disclosing carbon footprint or eco balance is necessary to raise consumer awareness.
To reduce tourism’s climate change footprint, “small scale, fair, just, people-oriented and participatory tourism” should be given much importance, ECOT said.
The ECOT statement, endorsed by 18 organizations from different parts of the world, called the tourism industry to be conscious of the plight of local communities who contribute least to the global warming, but “will be the first to suffer its devastating consequences.”
According to the statement, the carbon emission from tourism is likely to grow by 162% in the period 2005-2035.
“This is only to be expected as massive expansion of airports and increase in low-cost carriers pave the way for such growth in emissions,” the statement noted.
It also noted that the tourism industry is “notorious” for high per capita consumption of water, poor energy efficiency and waste management issues, resulting in negative environmental and social impacts.
ECOT and the 18 endorsing organizations expressed concern that the international air transport is the biggest source of carbon emissions.
“In the last 12 years, no noticeable progress in creating an appropriate climate regulation regime for bunker emissions (emission from aviation and shipping) has been achieved – a responsibility which was given in 1997 to the aviation and shipping sector itself. No concrete measures to reduce the emissions have been proposed, and as a result of this serious negligence, emissions from the sector have increased considerably during this period,” the organizations stated.
They expressed concern over the UNWTO’s lack of a people-centered, community perspective in relation to climate change and tourism policies.
ECOT and the concerned organizations felt that while tourism may bring economic benefit to few in the shorter term, in many places such benefits are likely to be overshadowed by the impact of climate change and other negative impacts of tourism.
Among the 18 concerned organizations are Asian Muslim Action Network, Caritas Asia, Christian Conference of Asia and the Pacific Conference of Churches.
“The link between tourism and climate change cannot be denied anymore and it is now time for the tourism industry to take measures that will take into account the people without whom tourism would not be possible,” they noted.
“In order to meet the challenge of ensuring that global warming remains below the dangerous threshold of 2 degree Centigrade, every nation, every industry sector and every human being is called to take affair share of the mitigation burden.”
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