As part of efforts to tackle the climate crisis, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) has launched a Net Zero Roadmap for the travel and tourism sector during its virtual climate week event.
During the event, it also unveiled social and environmental research data, which builds on the council’s annual Economic Impact Report. Along with the roadmap, the data is designed to support the sector’s drive towards net zero by 2050.
The initiative is being run in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and professional services and consulting experts, Accenture. It was announced at WTTC’s virtual Net Zero Travel & Tourism – From Ambition to Action event, during annual Climate Week NYC.
Julia Simpson, WTTC president & CEO, said: “The launch of our Net Zero Roadmap for the travel and tourism sector and development of sector wide data to measure our success are major steps to show how travel and tourism is playing its part in addressing climate change.
“WTTC, alongside our partners and sponsors, looks forward to offering tangible and meaningful solutions to meet the climate change challenge.”
Simpson added that the Net Zero Roadmap for the travel and tourism sector will be launched at COP26 in Glasgow next month.
The Roadmap will include a status quo overview of climate actions in travel and tourism, direct lessons learned from the past 18 months, as well as action frameworks for specific industries to help accelerate climate commitments and emissions reduction.
This climate action inventory research will be regularly monitored and updated by the WTTC until the sector’s targets are achieved.
During the virtual event, which was sponsored by IHG, participants discussed the sustainability challenges faced by the travel and tourism sector, along with the creation of the way forward in the sector’s quest to become net zero.
