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Extreme weather events are affecting the entire world at an increasing and alarming pace. Human activity is driving climate change. Given the urgency and severity of the crisis, we should adopt the term “climate collapse” to more properly convey the emergency to industry and the public.

The travel and tourism industry, which accounts for 10% of global GDP, employs 320 million people and creates 1 in 5 new jobs, is at risk owing to increasing numbers and severity of fires, floods, drought and super storms, as well as high heat and sea level rise. The industry must mitigate its impact on the climate to reduce its emissions and support its economic survival. 

Some major industry actors are rising to the challenge by committing to science-based targets initiatives (SBTi) – an initiative that validates companies’ carbon emissions reduction plan. While these steps are encouraging, only 75 travel and 27 hospitality companies have committed to SBTi (1.6% and 0.6% respectively of all 4,644 SBTi client companies around the world).

The industry must do much more to meaningfully mitigate and reverse climate collapse.

The travel and tourism industry has roared back from Covid-19 and is projected to grow significantly over the next decade and beyond. Combatting overtourism is critical as part of an overall more sustainable and responsible tourism ethos and model, and to reaching net zero goals.

When responsible tourism was defined in 2002, right before the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, there was no specific mention of the impact of the industry on climate change. In just 20 years it has become evident that this is now the industry’s top priority.

Hospitality sector

All major hospitality players have embraced the environmental, social and governance (ESG) model and are committed to reducing their carbon footprint. They are working toward reducing the impact of their buildings by retrofitting old ones and imposing stricter environmental rules on developers, architects, designers and engineers, using certifications such as LEED or BREEAM.

For almost 20 years, these companies have given guidance and regulations to their assets to develop a more sustainable approach to their operations, from renewable energy, energy efficiency and water conservation, to local employment and supporting cultural heritage. They have developed their own corporate responsibility measurement platforms and most hotel management companies have set up science-based targets (SBTi) for 2030.

But they will not succeed without buy-in from REITS (real estate investment trusts) and smaller owners or franchisees who are the true decision-makers when it comes to necessary investments for technical adjustments to their buildings and operations.

Like many other industries the hospitality industry relies on many important stakeholders in supply chains who will all need to be aligned to the same goals. 

Only 25 years ago almost no one in the sector was focused on responsible tourism, so there are reasons for hope that by 2030, more actors will be thoroughly involved thanks to the attention that client corporations and individual customers are giving to a more responsible approach.

Aviation industry

There is much talk about the impact of aviation on global greenhouse gas emissions. It accounts for 1.9% – far less than livestock and manure for instance (5.8%) and textile industry (10%). That being said, it is important to work on reducing the industry’s emissions as they will keep growing in years to come.

There are two main opportunities offering signs of hope: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and electric planes:

• SAF, produced from food, oil waste and biomass, should become more efficient by 2035. These fuels are currently used as support to kerosene during many flights.
• Electric and hybrid planes will become a reality by the end of this decade, even if just for short haul. They will meet the requirements of regional flights, private jets and some charter flights.

Becoming a net-zero industry will be a long journey for aviation but its main actors are committed to fulfill that objective by 2050.

Cruise lines

The cruise line sector has come under a lot of scrutiny and major operators have now committed to running more responsible operations and using more sustainable fuels. Its net-zero commitments usually target 2050 – and hopefully research and development will help them reach these goals earlier. 

Tour operators, travel advisors, distribution channels

These important actors all include sustainability criteria in their programmes and platforms and deliver badges to hotels. They usually rely on accredited or recognised standards from the Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC).

Trade organisations, such as SHA, WTTC and Travalyst, have created minimum standards and best practices for the industry and recently partnered with GSTC. 

The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC)

After a first decade of operations during which the GSTC became the common denominator for all sustainable hospitality and destination certifications, the criteria is now recognized by all tourism stakeholders and is the best reference for all actors of the industry.

Another evolution that offers great optimism is the fact that countries like Turkey, Greece and Singapore have adopted the GSTC criteria and are using it to support the industry’s adaptation to Responsible Tourism.

Whilst there is still much to do before responsible tourism becomes a common journey for all industry stakeholders, a lot has been accomplished in the past 20 years. 

The long journey to net zero will reach a checkpoint in 2030, following the UN Agenda for Sustainable Development, and a formal date of 2050 to be fully realised and achieved. Measurement, ongoing reporting and transparency are critical to ensure meaningful progress continues, rather than waiting until 2030 to understand if strategies are working and taking corrective actions if needed. 

It is reasonable to say that those engaging their company in 2050 goals today will no longer be at the helm when 2050 arrives. Their legacy will depend upon the seriousness of their current engagement and the strategies to support it.

Failure is not an option: future generations rely on the accountability of those who have the power today to make a major difference to reversing the climate collapse.

Stuart Greif is chief strategy, innovation and operating officer at Forbes Travel Guide and Herve Houdre is founder and chief executive of H2 Sustainability Consulting.

This article is republished from the World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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Over the last months, the raison d’être of winter sports has been threatened more than ever by a range of challenges and controversies. From the occupation by activists of the glacier of Girose, Southeastern France, to protest against plans for a new cable car, to doubts over whether to hold pre-season sporting events following the partial destruction of the Théodule glacier in Switzerland, scarce snow is pitting people against one another.

Behind all these tensions lies the same question: what does the future hold for skiing on an overheating planet?

In recent decades, France has seen some ski resorts close due to a lack of snow or a sustainable business model. However, the majority of resorts continue to cling to the hope of adapting to rising temperatures. But will reproducing the tried and tested recipes of the past be enough to meet the climate challenges ahead?

Published in Nature Climate Change, our study of 2,234 winter sports resorts in Europe sought to measure the impact of global warming on snowmaking in resorts, and the possible room for manoeuvre available to adapt.

This question is not just a concern for amateur or professional skiers. Skiing is also an economic issue, with a total turnover estimated at 30 billion euros in Europe. In France alone, 120,000 jobs depending directly and indirectly on the ski economy.

53% of ski resorts are at risk of running out of snow at +2°C

Climate change is a global phenomenon impacting resorts worldwide, but not all mountain areas are affected to the same degree or with the same speed, and the ability to limit the impact of these changes through snow production also varies greatly. We have measured the impact of climate change on winter sports resorts based on the level of global warming, using the graphical representation, commonly used in IPCC reports, of “burning embers”.

At 2°C of global warming above pre-industrial levels, 53% of European resorts are at very high risk of low snowfall. We assess the risk of low snowfall on the basis of the frequency of snow conditions considered to be the most unfavourable, those encountered on average one season in five between 1961 and 1990, the golden age of resort development.

However, the picture varies at a national level: in the French Alps, this proportion concerns a third of resorts, while in the Pyrenees and in the Franco-Swiss mid-mountain massifs, 89% and 80% respectively of resorts are affected by a very high level of risk of low snowfall.

At 4°C of global warming, 98% of European resorts are at very high risk of low snowfall. With this level of warming, the climate leaves winter sports resorts little margin for adaptation.

Changes in the use of snow production

One of the most popular solutions to adapt to scarcer snow is snowmaking, also known as “artificial snow”. Snow production involves projecting micro-droplets of water into the atmosphere so that they freeze before falling back to the ground. The resulting snow, made up of small balls of ice, is a suitable material for making an underlay.

In the past, snow was produced mainly to limit the impact of natural fluctuations in snow cover from one season to the next. Snow is now mainly produced in the pre-season, without any knowledge of the weather conditions for the coming winter, and then on a more ad hoc basis if necessary between the Christmas and winter holidays.

Snow production also affected by rising temperatures

Like natural snow, snow production is affected by rising temperatures, because snow production requires sufficiently cold weather conditions. This dual pressure is leading to increased investment to ensure that sufficient snow can be produced, thereby increasing the dependency of mountain resorts on snow tourism.

Not all ski resorts will equally be able to adapt to rising temperatures by producing snow. At +2°C global warming, snowmaking, if applied to 50% of the ski area, would reduce the proportion of resorts exposed to a very high risk of low snowfall in the Alps and Pyrenees to 7% and 9% respectively, while in the mid-range mountain ranges the proportion would be 56%. These differences are even more marked at higher levels of warming.

However, it should be remembered that while the level of snow cover is critical to ensuring resorts’ long-term socio-economic viability, other criteria are just as fundamental, such as the state of the ski lift network, promotion/marketing methods, or accommodation capacity and its attractiveness. It is therefore not possible to draw any direct conclusions from the figures for the risk of low snowfall as to the proportion or number of resorts likely to cease skiing.

The carbon footprint of snow production

What’s more, snow production is not carbon-neutral, so it’s important to bear this in mind before setting this technique up as the ultimate answer to reducing snow cover.

We have therefore also calculated the water requirements, production and energy demand involved, and the carbon footprint of the electricity used to produce snow. Over the reference period (1961-1990), the total quantity of snow produced on the slopes covered by the installations represents 13% of the total precipitation that falls annually on these same slopes. Assuming that 50% of the slopes are covered by snowmaking facilities, the total volume should increase by between 8% and 25%, depending on the country, for a warming of +2°C, and even more for a more marked warming.

This demand also tends to stagger over time, with lower production in November due to fewer cold spells favourable to production at the start of winter. It is therefore likely that the services provided by snow production will not be the same as in the past, which could make snow cover even more fragile over the high season.

In any case, the total volume of water that could be needed remains moderate, and a large part of this water is returned to the rivers as it melts. This is not to say complications can’t occur at a local scale further down the line, depending on how the water is drawn and of the makeup of affected ecosystems.

Similarly, at around 80 kt eq CO₂, the carbon footprint of the electricity used to produce snow remains limited, even if it varies greatly depending on countries’ energy mix.

Skiers’ transport and accommodation still emit a lot of CO₂

Finally, it is impossible to dissociate snow production from the tourism activity that calls for it. In reality, it is responsible for only a fraction of the carbon footprint of a winter sports tourist destination, with skiers’ transport and accommodation proving most polluting. Carbon emissions could nevertheless rise as people travel further and further afield to find snow.

Would the economic benefits be worth it? Our study calls on the tourism sector to craft a strategy based on climate adaptation and decarbonisation as resorts look to the future.

Authored by National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and the Environment tourism and information system research engineer Hugues François, Meteo France climatology and climate services engineer Raphaëlle Samacoïts, and National Meteorological Research Center researcher and director Samuel Morin.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Climate activists lined the road to this year’s Burning Man festival in Nevada to call out the “privileged mindset” of the Silicon Valley types who flock there – and the waste involved in creating a temporary city in the desert.

Only a couple of days later, disaster struck. Unprecedented rain – 20mm in 24 hours – turned the desert into mud, trapping the 70,000 festival goers.

As you might expect, the internet went wild with schadenfreude. But there’s a deeper issue here. This is not the first – and won’t be the last – outdoor festival upended by unprecedented weather. It was only a month ago when the World Scout Jamboree in South Korea was crippled by intense heat and typhoons, forcing its abandonment. Last year’s Splendour in the Grass festival in northern New South Wales turned into a mudpit after unprecedented rains.

Outdoor festivals are a summer rite of passage for many. Warm weather makes them possible. But summer’s when we often see the wildest weather too. As climate change loads the dice, we’ll see more festival disruptions, more often.

Summer may no longer be the right time for festivals

The biggest music festivals are usually held in summer months: Glastonbury in the United Kingdom and Tomorrowland in Belgium are held in the northern hemisphere summer, in late June and late July respectively. America’s Coachella festival takes place in April, but it’s in a desert where daytime temperatures over 30℃ are the norm.

As the world heats up, summer may soon be too risky for festival organisers. Creating large festivals is expensive and logistically challenging. Wipeouts from extreme weather events pose major financial risks.

When we go to festivals, we leave behind our houses and easy access to water. Many people camp in tents with relatively little protection from the elements.

During heatwaves, it’s particularly important to stay out of the heat and sun in the middle of the day and to stay hydrated. This isn’t always possible at festivals. Many of us underestimate the effect of heat on our bodies.

Extreme rainfall is very challenging for organisers. Managing tens of thousands of muddy, stuck people is hard – especially if it’s too difficult to bring supplies in. That’s why Burning Man organisers had to call on their attendees to conserve food and water.

If you have tens or even hundreds of thousands of people exposed to the heatwave or rainfall, it can pose a risk to their health. Evacuating large numbers of people is logistically very challenging.

As the climate changes, we can expect more frequent and more severe extreme weather. This will make the job of festival organiser much harder.

Organisation matters

Well-organised festivals are much safer. If organisers think ahead and put contingency plans and adequate infrastructure in place, the chaos from extreme weather events can be much better managed.

For instance, during the trouble-stricken Scout Jamboree in Korea, there were real concerns over the intense heat, given children are more vulnerable.

But the heat shouldn’t have been a surprise. The event was held at the height of summer – albeit in a year of record breaking heat. So organisers should have anticipated heat and put in place better strategies to manage extreme weather. A simpler solution might have been avoiding the middle of summer.

What are we likely to see in the future?

Extreme weather hitting festivals isn’t new. The legendary 1969 Woodstock festival in New York State was also a mud pit.

What is new is the increased frequency and intensity of these events. Climate scientists have warned of these effects for decades. Now they’re arriving.

As we heat the planet, we’re getting more frequent, intense and longer-lasting heatwaves across the world. We also know we’re seeing more and more intense short-duration downpours which cause flash flooding.

It stands to reason we can expect to see more upheaval and health concerns at outdoor festivals.

What can be done? Expect to see festival dates move to shoulder seasons rather than midsummer. Some locations may no longer be viable. Last year’s Burning Man sweltered, with temperatures of 40℃.

If festival organisers don’t want to move date or location, the minimum response they’ll need is to actively plan to manage extreme weather and ensure key infrastructure like water and toilets are able to cope with heat or floods.

If the world keeps pumping out greenhouse gas emissions at high rates, we could see some summer festival locations get much hotter – rising 4–8℃. That’s because land areas in summer are expected to heat up quicker than the global average. Those higher temperatures would make it impossible to safely host a festival.

Andrew King is a senior lecturer in climate science at the University of Melbourne. This article is republished in accordance with the Creative Commons. Read the original article here.

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One of the most stressful things about travelling is having to pack. But what if all you had to do was book your flight and the packing part — choosing, organizing, folding and making the clothes fit in your suitcase — came with your airline ticket?

Japan Airlines (JAL) is taking the term “packing light” to a new level with its new clothing rental service, Any Wear, Anywhere. The service provides international travellers with the option to rent sets of clothing from a range of choices, starting at a little over US$27 for two bottoms and three tops, reported Travel + Leisure.

“With more and more people flying again after the Covid-19 pandemic, and with the recent emphasis in sustainability, there is a growing movement around the world to promote sustainable tourism,” a press release from JAL said.

Multiple sets of seasonal clothing are available for rental in a range of sizes, from casual to smart casual or a combination of both, provided by Wefabrik. Travellers may rent as many as eight outfits for up to two weeks. The service is intended to reduce the weight of baggage and reduce carbon emissions, as well as save travellers hassle and time packing and laundering their own clothing. It also allows them to try on new styles without the pressure of buying them.

Reservations, delivery and washing of the clothes — which will be taken from overstock and pre-owned items — will be provided by Sumitomo Corporation. JAL will keep track of baggage weight reductions and corresponding carbon dioxide emissions reductions as a result of using the clothing rental service, and inform its customers.

JAL says that for each kilogram of weight that is avoided on a flight from Tokyo to New York, the carbon emissions from the aircraft are reduced by 0.75 kilograms, Simple Flying reported.

“Travellers increasingly desire to make more sustainable choices regarding their travel destinations, accommodations, transportation etc., they still lack sufficient options. For example, most travellers now enjoy eating at restaurants and staying at hotels at their destination, but they generally bring their own clothing from home,” the airline said.

To use the service, travellers need to register online and provide their JAL reference number, as well as the address of their short-term rental or hotel. Reservations must be made a month in advance, and the clothing will be made available to them for as long as two weeks.

“The concept of the service is therefore to provide a travel experience with minimal luggage by offering clothing rentals at the destination, thereby creating environmental value,” JAL said.

“By expanding the use of the service, we aim to create an environment where travellers can use local options for all aspects of their clothing, food, and accommodation, transforming travel and business trips into more sustainable experiences.”

JAL’s Any Wear, Anywhere service is being offered as a year-long trial through to 31 August of next year.

This article is republished from the World Economic Forum under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

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