Tourism & the climate crisis: New TPCC Horizon Papers on the implications of ‘Doughnut Economics’ & aviation’s inadequate climate change policies
Following its recent Tourism and Climate Change Stocktake 2023 in December, the Tourism Panel on Climate Change (TPCC) has published two new ‘Horizon Papers’:
- A deep dive into ‘doughnut’ economics and its implications for travel & tourism in a “finite climate-challenged world” by Professor Harold Goodwin.
- A critical assessment of international aviation’s greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation policy by economist Chris Lyle.
The TPCC Executive Board issued the following statement:
“Our recent Stocktake of the tourism sector, by more than 60 leading tourism and climate academic and industry experts, made it clear that we are not going far enough, and not going fast enough, to fulfil our share of the Paris 2030 and 2050 Global Climate Targets.
_ Professor Daniel Scott, University of Waterloo, Canada; Professor Susanne Becken, Griffith University, Australia; and Professor Geoffrey Lipman, Green Growth & Travelism Institute, Belgium
“Our TPCC Horizon Papers are leading-edge ‘think pieces’ to stimulate critical action. They are commissioned from recognised experts in the field and are peer-reviewed.
“We will produce these routinely between our annual major science-based reports on the interaction of tourism and the climate crisis.”
Download the Horizon Papers in full from TPCC.info/downloads. Also find the inaugural Tourism and Climate Change Stocktake 2023, which TPCC released during the UN Climate Change Conference, COP28, last year, as well as the TPCC Foundation Framework that its Executive Board presented at COP27 in 2022.
TPCC is an independent and impartial initiative designed to support tourism’s transition to net-zero emissions and climate-resilient tourism development.
Contents
TPCC’s latest Horizon Papers
‘Tourism in a Finite Climate-Challenged World’ by Professor Harold Goodwin
Travel & tourism — and humanity — is faced with perhaps its greatest challenge: the existential threat of climate change. The travel & tourism industry contributes to climate change via its GHG emissions, and is adversely affected by the extreme weather events that are the products of climate change. The sector now has to both mitigate and adapt.
Part I of this Horizon Paper paper reminds us that Earth is finite; that there are limits to growth; that climate change is an existential threat; and that denial is dangerous.
Part II addresses the problem of defining terms such as ‘sustainability’ and ‘climate resilience’ in the context of interlocking crises.
Part III examines limits to growth and planetary impacts, focusing on Kate Raworth’s ‘doughnut economics’, or seven ways of rethinking economics for the 21st century.
Part IV considers the implications for travel & tourism of inadequate action in an emerging new climate-constrained world.
Download this Horizon Paper from TPCC.info/downloads
‘Climate Change Mitigation Policy of International Aviation – a Critical Assessment’ by Chris Lyle
Aviation is the “increasingly dominant contributor” to the GHG emissions of international travel & tourism.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and many regulatory authorities and airlines have the “aspirational” goal of ‘net zero’ by 2050. But there is a lack of attention to shorter-term goals, notably in addressing the scientific consensus that aviation’s CO2 emissions need to be halved from their 2019 levels by 2030.
Chris Lyle, of consultancy Air Transport Economics, reviews the relationship between and mitigation activities of ICAO, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the European Union (EU) against the backdrop of national regulations.
Lyle proposes how to build on this structure to fulfil the Paris Climate Agreement goals, arguing that individual nations must be free to add their own more ambitious actions.
Download this Horizon Paper from TPCC.info/downloads
TPCC’s earlier Horizon Papers
‘Sustainable Tourism’s Achilles’ Heel: Aviation Emissions’ by Chris Lyle
Chris Lyle, of consultancy Air Transport Economics, reviews recent major studies on the feasibility, contribution, and related policy frameworks of measures that seek to mitigate air transport’s greenhouse gas emissions.
His Horizon Paper addresses the collective limited capacity of those measures to achieve the Paris Agreement goals; considers “paths forward and ‘deep dives’” into critical aspects of aviation emissions mitigation; and lays out some key points of consideration for policymakers. The author notes that the game-changing driver will be new aircraft power sources, particularly sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
Lyle concludes that new thinking is urgently required, suggesting that the tourism sector needs to “get more directly involved” in the decarbonisation of aviation lest the industry becomes “a distressed or even stranded asset”.
Download this Horizon Paper from TPCC.info/downloads
‘The Imperative for Advancing Climate Risk Assessment in Tourism’ by Risklayer GmbH
Bijan Khazai and his colleagues at Risklayer GmbH review the G20’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
The authors note that increasing numbers of investors are asking tourism organisations about the implications of climate change on their long-term financial performance, and suggest that this will only intensify going forward.
Their Horizon Paper looks at mainstream climate risk assessment decision support tools in tourism (“largely ill-suited”) and proposes a financial risk disclosure tool that could be useful for the tourism sector in TCFD compliance.
Download this Horizon Paper from TPCC.info/downloads
About the Tourism Panel on Climate Change
The Tourism Panel on Climate Change (TPCC) is an independent body of more than 60 climate scientists and tourism experts who provide current-state assessments of the tourism industry and objective metrics to public- and private-sector decision-makers.
Launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh in November 2022, the TPCC’s mission is to inform and rapidly advance science-based climate action across the global tourism system in support of the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
It was inspired by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
Contact: Secretariat@TPCC.info
Featured image (top of post)
The covers of the new TPCC Horizon Papers about tourism and the climate crisis. Background image by Pete Linforth (CC0) via Pixabay.
