More than 50 countries sign UN sustainable tourism declaration

By Karin Strohecker

More than 50 governments have signed a U.N. declaration to make tourism around the globe more climate friendly, the United Nations said on Wednesday, in what it hailed as a major achievement of the climate summit in Azerbaijan.

"At COP29 we have achieved today an historic milestone by being included in the UN Climate Change Conference Action Agenda for the first time," U.N. Executive Director for Tourism Zoritsa Urosevic told a news conference.

The global tourism industry accounts for 3% of global GDP and is the source of 8.8% of greenhouse emissions, said Urosevic.

The countries that signed the declaration on Enhanced Climate Action on Tourism have pledged to recognise the need to address tourism when drafting climate plans, such as their Nationally Determined Contributions. The next update of NDCs, in which governments describe policies to reduce emissions that cause global warming, are due in February.

Tourism often accounts for a large share of a government's hard currency revenues, particularly in emerging countries, and can itself be highly exposed to climate events such as hurricanes, heatwaves and droughts.

"We now understand that the future of our business depends on the sustainability of our actions today," said Kanan Gasimov, head of administration at Azerbaijan's tourism agency.

The declaration was accompanied by a number of other initiatives, such as a framework presented by hotel industry body World Sustainable Hospitality Alliance, aimed at measuring and reporting data such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, waste and energy usage across the sector.

The collated data would help the tourism industry and travellers understand their impact, said CEO Glenn Mandziuk.

"We are an industry that has a vested interest in the protection of each destination," Mandziuk said on the sidelines of the meeting in Baku. "We have to have a conversation where we can play a bigger role."

The group represents 55,000 hotels totalling more than 7 million rooms and counts big names such as Accor, Hilton and Marriott among its members.