Letter from SUNx Malta to Heads of UNWTO: UNEP and UNFCCC and signatories of the Glasgow Tourism Declaration

With support from the Government of Malta, we have set up a global Climate Friendly Travel (CFT) framework to support climate resilience and sustainability in tourism companies and communities anywhere in the world. The key elements incorporate engagement of Youth and a Registry of Code Red Climate Friendly Travel ambitions and action.

SUNx Malta is one of the charter signatories to the Glasgow Declaration for Tourism, and we fully support the goals of the Declaration. (Although arguing our sector needs to go further faster with a DASH to Zero if we are to respond adequately to the Code Red Climate Crisis).

We have taken note of the Glasgow commitment to report publicly what actions are planned and actually taken, as well as to show what progress is being made.  We have also noted the strong call for collaboration as one of the key Glasgow pathways to accelerating transformation.

It is in this spirit of collaboration, we are offering to provide the CFT Registry as a neutral vehicle for companies and communities to list their climate and sustainability action plans, as well as to record progress over time. This will also allow full transparency for travelers and residents There is no charge for using the Registry thanks to the support of the Government of Malta for our programs. Similarly there will be no costs for the Glasgow Declaration partners.

The CFT Registry was specifically created to provide an entry into the UNFCCC Global Climate Action Platform (GCAP) for tourism companies and communities that are serious about climate change and sustainability. At the launch in 2020, together with the Minister of Tourism of Malta and the President of WTTC, the then Executive Secretary of UNFCC wrote the following to us:

“There is no doubt that the climate challenge is presently outpacing us and requires urgent, global action. Travel & Tourism has an enormous role to play and can have, through its actions, positive impacts. As the UN Secretary-General Guterres has said, it is imperative that we rebuild the sector in a “safe, equitable and climate friendly” manner. Business as usual is not an option.

In this context, I welcome the opportunities that the Climate Friendly Travel Registry offers to Travel & Tourism organisations to develop, register and promote their climate strategies, plans and achievements in support of the goals of the Paris Agreement.

I look forward to seeing Travel & Tourism organisations participating in this sectoral Climate Friendly Travel Registry as well as redoubling their efforts to ensure a climate neutral and resilient world by 2050 at the latest.

We sincerely believe that this facility can help especially small and medium sized tourism operators in the Global South.

We look forward to working together towards practical action at COP27 in Egypt.

The European Travel Commission (representing 35 National Tourism Organizations) recently signed an SDG 17 Agreement with SUNx Malta which has already produced 3 concrete actions to advance Climate Friendly Travel in Europe.

• ◉ Professor Geoffrey Lipman gave an in depth presentation on Climate Friendly Travel to the General Meeting of ETC in Slovenia in May – detailing the concepts, linkage with the SDG’s and Paris 1.5, Stakeholder engagement, with Registered climate and sustainability plans for transparency, SDG 17 Partners support, as well as a unique focus on youth leadership. He noted SUNx Malta was a launch signatory of the Glasgow Tourism declaration but had called for it to go further, faster to meet IPCC targets of 7.6% per annum GHG reduction through 2030 and zero GHG 2050. He referenced Climate Friendly Travel as a community based lifestyle with shared climate and sustainability interests of visitors and residents,  curated and promoted by networks of young people and aligned with the UN green (2030) and clean (2050) Roadmap.

 

• ◉ This was followed by a one week online intensive Training Course for 13 ETC Members in July

 

• ◉ A pilot CFT program with 3 representative NTO’s to be launched in October

 

Commenting on this Lipman said it was a privilege to work with such a professional, dedicated organization and he hoped this could be a model for future collaboration in other regions.

We are writing this after all the Leaders of the World’s Airlines have returned from Doha and their 78th IATA Annual General Meeting. Basking in yet another collective “Commitment to be Net Zero carbon by 2050”.

Through previous IATA meetings and many other public and private stakeholder events before, spanning almost 75 years of post World War 2 history, the aviation sector has played an immensely positive role in building today’s interconnected world. And in the process, helping drive some 10% of global economic activity through tourism and trade.

Aviation also faces huge challenges – from the immediate post covid recovery and the chaos of balancing supply and demand that is clogging airports and decimating flight schedules. But also from the more threatening impact of the code red climate crisis where their almost total reliance on fossil based fuel makes them a “Hard to abate sector – albeit representing under 3% of total global Carbon pollution. 

Nowhere is this more important than in the so called States at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) – the least developed, the small islands and the landlocked. These are the ones for whom tourism – leisure and business travel – is a vital lifeline for development. For these countries, tourism can be twice as intensive, supporting more than 20% of the economy and be the most dynamic creator of jobs. This is what countries at the top of the pyramid called “essential air services” when they needed to protect specific routes for economic development, security or political purposes. (Think why non-national airlines so rarely operate domestic services)

For these reasons the “Base of the Pyramid” countries need a vibrant sustainable air transport system for their very existence. One that can transform to respond positively to today’s frightening climate realities.

These BOP countries are also, for the most-part, the ones in the frontline in the existential battle against the disastrous weather volatility that comes with the intensifying “Code Red” Climate Crisis. The floods, fires, hurricanes and droughts that are becoming more and more commonplace and which can create massive human and financial devastation anywhere in the world, are particularly disastrous for less resilient, financially weaker states,

But when it comes to the Climate Crisis, the airlines are facing a huge challenge, because while they were chanting the popular Net Zero Carbon 2050 Mantra in Doha, their path to get there is one the toughest on the planet, due to their massive reliance on fossil fuel propulsion and their regulatory exclusion from the UN Climate Convention (their historical governance is under an earlier 1944 Chicago Convention and related “bilateral” framework, historically more concerned with air service development than Climate response).

Moreover, there is a clear adverse public reaction to their perceived impact, (perceived, because at some 2 - 3 % of global CO2, aviation is far from being the worst industrial polluter.) And airlines do not necessarily however help their own climate cause by continuing to focus on growth, with its associated pollution and an overreliance on complex and sometimes questionable offsets, which they are baking into their operational norms and compounding an already incomprehensible pricing system.

• So how might the BOP countries secure their essential air services – which will certainly not be the ones getting the highest industry priority?
• To paraphrase General De Gaulle – a sustainable aviation system in the context of climate change is too important to leave to airlines alone. It requires a broader stakeholder perspective, as well as a climate justice one – the Countries who will be most affected by aviation’s climate crisis are the ones who have made the smallest contribution to planetary heating and who are the least able to pay for the transformation to the “new climate economy”. They will be the first to feel the crunch of air service cutbacks. The biggest losers from any resurrected Greta Thunberg generation “No Fly” or “Flight Shaming” campaigns. The very ones who need air transport connectivity the most.
• We should start by considering the world’s most extreme climate exposed states as requiring essential air services - and seek to adapt the governance regime accordingly.  A good start could be made at the ICAO Assembly in Montreal in September.
• Then we could look at special mandates for SAF – Sustainable Aviation Fuel – the elixir that the aviation sector is advocating for primary technological response to the Paris 1.5 requirements. These mandates are most advanced in the European Union, who are well placed to help advance this thinking through their own powerful development strategies. This will help secure essential air services for BOP States and avoid the calamity that we saw with COVID vaccine roll out.
• We should examine the potential for targeted new technology production of SAF – particularly the home and industrial waste to fuel, circular economy approaches, that British Airways, United, Lufthansa and other airlines have promoted for their big markets. So many BOP countries have abundant wind and sunshine to create a truly clean operational set up. One could envisage a role for the big financing institutions like the World Bank or even impact investors. There is surely an opportunity for creative financing here – (Where are you - Bill Gates: Elon Musk: Jeff Bezos)
• Last but by no means least – and as Geoff Lipman has been advocating for some time – we could create a Kennedy style “Moonshot” for this true-zero “Clean Aviation 2050” initiative – big governments, big manufacturers, big airlines, big finance and most importantly big fuel companies sitting on windfall profits from today’s geopolitical happenstance working together. And let’s give it an additional more social and climate justice related twist. Let´s do it first and foremost for the weakest, the most climate exposed, the most tourism and air transport dependent countries and build the movement from that base of the pyramid up to all of us.                                                                            

Professor Geoffrey Lipman was formerly Executive Director IATA, President WTTC & Assistant Secretary General UNWTO. He is currently Chair of the  Green Growth & Travelism Institute: President of SUNx Malta a legacy program for the late Maurice Strong. He is a visiting Professor at Victoria University Australia. He has written and lectured extensively on Travel & Tourism: Green Growth and the Climate Crisis.

Professor Dr. Christoph Wolff was Member of the Executive Committee of the World Economic Forum, MD of the European Climate Foundation and Member of the Board of DB Schenker Rail AG. He is Senior Advisor Aviation and Shipping for the Sustainable Market Initiative of HRH Prince of Wales. He is Honorary Professor for Management, Economics & Social Sciences University of Cologne & Visiting Professor at the University of St. Gallen

Both are Envoys for the Sustainable Tourism Global Centre in Saudi Arabia.