In an effort to meet the climate change challenge, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) announced the launch of a “Net Zero Roadmap” for the travel and tourism industry during its virtual climate week event. The initiative, being run in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Program and professional services and consulting experts, Accenture, was announced at the virtual “Net Zero Travel & Tourism – From Ambition to Action” event, during the annual Climate Week NYC.
WTTC also used the occasion to announce the launch of social and environmental research data, which will be produced across the whole sector, building on WTTC’s annual Economic Impact Report. WTTC believes that these vital pieces of work represent its biggest deliverables in the sector’s drive toward net zero by 2050.
WTTC president and CEO Julia Simpson said in a press release, “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.”
She added that the 'Net Zero Roadmap' for the travel and tourism sector will be launched at COP26 in Glasgow next month. It 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. WTTC will regularly monitor and update this climate action inventory research, providing continuous updates until the travel & tourism sector’s targets are achieved.
During the virtual event, which was sponsored by IHG, participants discussed the sustainability challenges the travel and tourism sector faces, along with the creation of the way forward in the sector’s quest to become net zero.
The interactive session included remarks by Simpson, WTTC president and CEO, representatives for United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change; Arnold Donald, WTTC chair and president and CEO of Carnival Corporation; Elie Maalouf, chief executive officer Americas, IHG; Alex Zozaya, chairman of Apple Leisure Group and Gilda Perez-Alvarado, global CEO of JLL Hotels and Hospitality among others.
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