The first Tourism and Climate Change Stocktake report has been released by the Tourism Panel on Climate Change (TPCC)  concurrent with the UN COP-28 Climate Conference. Its 24 key findings aim to support policy makers and the tourism industry to accelerate planning and investment toward low carbon and climate resilient global tourism.   The report finds that many countries support tourism because of its integral role in contributing to economic development. There is limited evidenced that tourism growth has been decoupled from increases in greenhouse gas emissions. Tourism now contributes directly and indirectly about 8-10% of global emissions.   Professor Daniel Scott from the University of Waterloo, Canada said: “In 2023, the world witnessed an extraordinary succession of climate records so that we no longer need to imagine the impacts of climate change on tourism. Transformational change to climate resilient tourism is our collective responsibility and compels decisive leadership by the tourism community. The future of global tourism remains ours to decide, for there can be no sustainable tourism if we fail on climate.”   Professor Susanne Becken from Griffith University, Australia said: “The Glasgow Declaration is a pivotal roadmap for the tourism sector's journey towards decarbonisation and regeneration. It offers a collaborative platform for all stakeholders to advance collectively in aligning with the Paris Agreement. By embracing this framework, we can not only reduce emissions but also foster a regenerative approach to tourism that ensures sustainability, competitiveness and resilience. Our united efforts under this declaration are key to reshaping the future of tourism for a healthier planet."   Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of SUNx Malta said “It’s time to move further and faster than the hollow promises made for three decades in the future. That future is already here in increasingly devastating global weather patterns. Tourism needs to respond to this now and to recent IPCC calls for GHG emissions to peak by 2025.”   The Stocktake Key Findings include:  

• Except during COVID-19 disruptions, tourism is growing faster than the global economy, trending toward longer distance and more emission intensive travel.
• Eight to ten per cent of global emissions are from tourism with emissions concentrated mainly in high-income countries acting both as traveller residences and destinations.
• Tourism, air travel, and cruise tourism are not on track to acheive their 2030 emission reduction goals.
• Air travel remains the most difficult component of global tourism to realise deep emission reductions.
• The greenhouse gas emission intensity of hotel operations is gradually improving in some regional markets but without acceleration and expansion globally, will fall short of their 2030 emission reduction target.
• Consumer behaviour and tourism marketing needs to shift away from the highest-emitting forms of tourism, a necessary step to achieve GHG reduction targets.
• Global tourism emissions are heavily concentrated in high-income outbound markets and destinations.
• Compounding climate hazards are anticipated to curtail tourism to many climate vulnerable countries where tourism represents a large part of the economy.
• Current forms of tourism, such as ski tourism at low elevations, beach tourism in highly erodible coastlines, and some nature-based tourism will not be viable at some destinations because of accelerating climate hazards and limits to adaptation measures.
• The unequal distribution of tourism emissions and potential impacts of climate hazards have important climate justice implications.
• In low-income countries, climate and tourism risks overlay with many other factors, such as poverty and public sector debt, requiring climate resilient policy making and climate finance.
• Tourism policy is not yet integrated with global or national climate change frameworks, despite an increase in sectoral climate pledges. Most national tourism policies or plans give limited consideration to climate change.
• Governments and international development assistance continue to invest in tourism infrastructure that is climate vulnerable and linked to high GHG emission intensity.
• Research and scientific capacity to inform evidence-based climate action in tourism has increased substantially, but training in industry and tourism education programs remains very limited.

  The TPCC Tourism and Climate Change Stocktake was released on Monday 11^th December and the Full Report and Summary for Policymakers are available at http://www.tpcc.info/

  The theme for World Environment Day in 2023 is “Beat Plastic Pollution", against the background of some 400 million tonnes of plastic produced every year, half of which is designed to be used only once.   At SUNx Malta, in solidarity, and in partnership with the World Tourism Network and ICTP, we are adopting a sub-theme to our 2030 Strategy that tracks IPCC Targets and building a responsive Plastics initiative to support our Community Members.   Our Strategy now incorporates a call for peaking of plastic use in 2025, cutting by half in 2030 and Zero Plastics 2050.   To support this, we have created a CFT Plastics Reduction Initiative with our Members and Partners who specialise in this work - Common Seas, Searious Business, Travel without Plastic and the Blue Community who are global players in the Circular Economy, Plastic Elimination and Waste Management.   We will introduce the initiative through selected Chapters, supported by Climate Friendly Travel Services later this year. It is part of our broader “Peak Emissions by 2025 Program”   SUN^x is reaching out to the leadership of the Travel & Tourism sector to act on the latest IPCC Report (6th Assessment 2022), which called for 3 clear actions to have any chance of stabilising global temperatures at Paris 1.5 by mid-century:   -  2025 Peak GHG Emissions -  2030 Cut by 43% -  2050 Net Zero   It is a fact that many of the leading Travel & Tourism organizations & companies have strongly committed to the 2030 / 2050 goals – epitomised by the Glasgow Declaration.   But what happened to 2025?   Who in the tourism sector has even recognized the IPCC science-based call, that says any mid and long-term goals are dependent on facing up to the harsh realities now and setting a 2025 peaking ambition? Who wants to even try to bend our trend?   How many floods, wildfires, ice melts and deaths will it take for tourism to act now – not in 7 years’ time?   For sure it is a huge challenge for every tourism stakeholder, and yes aviation is a hard-to-abate sector. But during COVID we faced up to that challenge because there was no alternative. Now we have a chance to prepare - and time to get our act together.

  SUN^x Malta – a legacy program for Maurice Strong, Sustainability and Climate activist half a century ago – promoting Climate Friendly Travel; together with Les Roches, one of the world’s leading hospitality business schools; announce the annual Strong Earth Awards. Cosponsoring with us is The Earth Charter institute in Costa Rica, CBCGDF in Beijing and ECPD in Belgrade.   The award is for students interested in a future advancing Climate Friendly Travel – low carbon: SDG linked: Paris 1.5. There will be 10 awards of 500 Euro each sponsored by Les Roche and SUNx Malta together.   A Special Award will be incorporated for the late Valere Tjolle, an early advocate of Green Tourism, who developed ‘Vision of Sustainable Tourism’ for Travel Mole e-bulletin.   All entrants will receive a copy of the Earth Charter courtesy of the Earth Charter Institute and electronic copy of the book Remembering Maurice F Strong courtesy of ECPD   Awards will be given for the best 500-word “thought paper” on:   “Why is the Earth Charter more relevant today than when it was introduced by Maurice Strong and Michael Gorbachev in 2005 - especially for tourism in Least Developing Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS)”   The competition has been designed to draw attention to the important sustainability messages contained in the Earth Charter, as well as the vision of the late Maurice Strong and its increasing relevance in today’s Climate challenged world.     For more information on the awards please go to www.thesunprogram.com   To learn about the Earth Charter, go to www.earthcharter.org   Please email entries in word document to [email protected] by including following details:   Full Name/Country/ Gender/ Word Count/Name of University (if student)   Submission Deadline: TBC   Winners will be announced by the end of the year   Judging will be done by a team of SUN^x Malta co-chaired by Professor Geoffrey Lipman and Joceline Favre-Bulle, Director of Operations, Les Roches.   Professor Geoffrey Lipman, President of SUNx Malta said “As the IPCC Report dramatically makes clear, we are running out of time to fix the eXistential Climate Crisis. Only tomorrow’s young leaders will be able to make the tough choices to get us to meet Paris targets. The Earth Charter, conceived by Maurice Strong, is an essential building block for an understanding of Climate Friendly Travel and the resilience needed now. “

  Offer of a Free Scholarship for Climate Friendly Travel Diploma for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and other developing countries   Together with Malta’s Ministry of Tourism and the Institute for Tourism Studies, SUNx Malta  will offer 50 Free Scholarships - one for each of the 39 SIDS and 11 for other developing countries from around the world (Uganda, India, Bali, Sri Lanka, Zimbabwe, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Costa Rica, Panama, Peru) for our 2023 online two-year Climate Friendly Travel Diploma. The course begins on 2^nd October 2023.   For the 2022 Diploma, we offered 46 scholarships for LDCs and 4 for Ukraine. And these will become National SUNx Chapters to advance Climate Friendly Travel on September 27^th which is World Tourism Day.   The Diploma is a world first and trains students to support Travel & Tourism companies and communities to be climate resilient and to pursue Climate Friendly Travel Growth; as well as in transforming to achieve Zero GHG emissions by 2050. It also trains them to help to build Climate Friendly Travel Communities - preparing them for jobs in Sustainable Transport, Hospitality, Destination Management or Government Services.   You can find more details about the diploma and scholarship application link please click Climate Friendly Travel Diploma Scholarships .   The ideal candidate must be a graduate, with a commitment to a career in Travel & Tourism and have fluent English. They must be able to commit to two years of online engagement and be ready to work with us to help build Climate Friendly Travel Chapters of thoughtful Climate Response advocates in their countries.   To Apply, please click here

  Malta Tourism Authority (MTA), Minister for Tourism, Hon. Clayton Bartolo MP: MTA CEO Carlo Micallef, and MD Malta Tourism Observatory, Leslie Vella, will launch 50 Climate Friendly Travel country programmes in the world’s Least Developed countries (LDCs) aimed at responding to Climate Change. This is a key component of Malta’s commitment to be a global centre of Climate Friendly Travel (CFT) as laid out in its 2030 Tourism Strategy.   These Chapters will be led by scholarship graduates of the Climate Friendly Travel Diploma run by SUN^x Malta and The Institute of Tourism Studies, Malta which is supported by MTA and the Ministry of Tourism. They focus on the countries most affected by Climate Change.   The aim of the Chapters is to build a growing community of like-minded, thoughtful Tourism-focused, climate activists who are networked across the world’s developing countries. These Climate Champions will also encourage companies to join SUN^x Malta’s CFT Registry where they can show their Climate Actions Plans.