Geoffrey Lipman: a Decent Guy

(Picture: With Maurice Strong at Rio + 20 Earth Summit 2012)

 

Featured interview by writer Mark Bibby Jackson for eXist - our monthly bulletin about Climate Friendly Travel

 

It is typical of the man that the first thing that Geoffrey Lipman mentions in our interview is his good friend the late Maurice Strong. 

“He gave me and so many others like me the inspiration to act,” says Lipman. 

Strong created the UN “Green and Clean” Roadmap, which is reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement, as well as launching both the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). He also played a leading role, as Secretary General of the two trailblazing Earth Summits at Stockholm in 1972 and Rio in 1992, as well as creating an Earth Charter between People and Planet. 

“No other person played such a consistent global leadership role,” says Lipman. “He saw tourism as a catalyst for positive change because it touches so many people and communities.”

DASH 2 ZERO

In many ways Lipman has carried the torch that Strong left behind in what he sees as a DASH 2 Zero; a travel and tourism related response to the Race to Zero, launched by the UK Presidency in 2020. 

 

 

“The Race to Zero calls for halving carbon emissions by 2030 and Net Zero by 2050,” he explains. “Our DASH looks to 2030 for Net Zero Carbon – with an earlier target which we believe is possible if there is a collective resolve and incorporating offsetting which still has a grand debate underway.”

A keen rugby player in his youth, for Lipman there is one massive elephant in the room that has to be tackled head on if the travel and tourism is to make a meaningful contribution to meeting its Paris goals.

“There is a big question mark around aviation with limited access to non-fossil fuel propulsion,” he says, repeating his longstanding call for a Kennedy-style ‘Moonshot’ to solve the problem. “If big governments, big aviation, big finance and big oil were really committed then that issue could be overcome. The technology is there with systems that turn household waste and the like into SAF. The market is clearly there. Now we just need to scale.”

Lipman is encouraged by announcements such as Airbus’ plans to introduce hydrogen planes by 2035, but feels that such deadlines are already too late. 

“Most important is to start now – the scientists say that it’s the next few years that will be critical,” he says. “And in the three decades to 2050 we must move to real zero greenhouse gas – not just the 75% that’s carbon.”

Lipman has spent his whole career working in the travel and tourism sector. He spent twenty years working with The International Air Transport Association (IATA) – “from tearoom to Executive Director”. Then, he became the first President of The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) before joining The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), becoming the Assistant Secretary General. 

In 2015 with the support of Maurice Strong, he established a small not for profit NGO.

SUNx Program

“We called it SUN – the Strong Universal Network – in honour of Maurice,” he says. “And added the x to remind ourselves that the Climate Crisis is eXistential.”

That is the key principle behind the SUNx Program is that climate change is existential – if we don’t fix it, it will fix us. And the travel and tourism sector needs to address this through making travel more climate friendly.

“Climate Friendly Travel integrates at the core, the SDGs and their 2030 targets with the Paris 1.5 Climate targets,” he explains. “We don’t see this only in terms of the metrics, important though they are, but very much the mindset. If people are committed to the concept they will get to the numbers in their own way. And we will be there to guide and support them, through our Registry, SDG 17 Partners and Strong Climate Champions.”

In 2019, he signed a five-year agreement with the Government of Malta to create the SUNx Malta Program.

“Without Malta we couldn’t have done anything,” he says. “They had the strategic vision through my friend Leslie Vella to see that there was a need to address the climate travel sector intersect long before it became fashionable. They have a long climate action history – being the country that first put the issue on the agenda of the UN General Assembly as far back as 1987. They also have a big tourism vision as a beautiful and friendly destination.”

Greta Thunberg Generation

If this all sounds a bit like an old man’s club, then nothing could be further from the truth. Although Lipman himself might be embarking on the final chapter of his illustrious career, he is keen to emphasis the key role that what he often refers to as the Greta Thunberg generation has to play in solving the problems that his generation has caused. 

“Because it’s their world we are destroying,” he says. “Or as Greta Thunberg said, ‘It’s your mess that we will have to clean up’. So, we want to get as much of Climate Friendly Travel into their positive thinking as possible. And we want them to be activists for change in our sector. We are training them for that and encouraging them.”

This is why so many of the projects started by SUNx Malta have a focus on youth. These include the first ever diploma on climate friendly travel, the inaugural SEYS Youth Summit held earlier this year, the recent Summer School, and perhaps most importantly, creating a global cadre of Climate Champions that Lipman hopes will help those in travel and tourism change the way that the sector works for good.

Climate Friendly Travel Registry

Lipman hopes that these Champions will work for major travel companies, organisations and communities who will sign up for the Climate Friendly Travel Registry, which he believes is an essential component if the sector is to achieve its Paris goals. He encourages all within the sector to sign up.

“Join the Climate Friendly Travel Registry and unlock a lot of free help to prepare your unique climate and sustainability programs and our targeted links with the UN Climate and SDG programs, which really operate quite separately from the tourism world we are used to.”

SUNx Malta has recently signed the Glasgow Declaration, believing that it is key for the sector to work together as a whole. 

Glasgow Declaration

“We are talking about the existential challenge facing humanity. The scale is massive. Billions of travellers, with hundreds of thousands of companies and communities. It will take many organisations to make this happen,” he says. 

“We will cooperate with anyone, which is why we signed the Glasgow Declaration and are offering our Registry for measurement and tracking of performance. At SUNx Malta, we will just keep following our strategy of helping communities and companies to transform to Climate Friendly Travel, in the spirit of Maurice Strong and with a “Plan for our Kids."

Overall, despite much of the press speculation that Glasgow COP 26 represented a last chance saloon for the climate, Lipman believes that in reality it was part of a long process that stretches back to the work that Strong started back in Stockholm in 1972.

“It’s another in a long line of “last chances” which we have heard about for many years – at least since the 2009 Copenhagen COP,” he says. “This one just has more hype than previous ones – the UK are good at that kind of thing.” 

That is not to say that he is underestimating the urgent need to redress the existential threat facing mankind.

Leaving a Legacy

“There is no doubt the window for real action is closing, so our big leaders need to take the tough actions, like switching from fossil fuel energy to renewables as soon as possible – and stopping the insane oil exploration subsidies,” he says.

With time running out on my interview as well, I have time for just one last question. Having dedicated SUNx to Maurice Strong what would Lipman like his own legacy to be? His response is typically self-effacing.

“That I made a small contribution to my grandkids surviving and being able to travel easily in a climate friendly way,” he says. “And for people who knew me to say he was a decent guy trying to do the right things.”

A decent guy doing the right things, now who could ask for a better epithet than that. Not that Lipman has any intention of giving up the fight for the future of the planet any time soon.