UN Climate Change COP29 Thematic Day On Tourism
The inclusion of “Climate Action in Tourism” in the UN Climate Change COP29 Thematic Program for the first time in history, under the Presidency of Azerbaijan, represents a milestone for an important economic sector such as tourism. High-level meetings are scheduled to take place on 20th November 2024 in Baku, Azerbaijan.
OBJECTIVES
Having recovered from the shock of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector is taking enhanced responsibility for its social and environmental impacts, looking at sustainability as an interlinked element to competitiveness and resilience, to drive away from a business-as-usual scenario which could lead to tourism-related GHG emissions to increase at least by 25% by 2030.
As part of COP29’s Tourism Day, the following objectives have been outlined:
Policy change: Launch of the Baku Declaration on Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism, as a call to action for tourism to contribute to the update of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement and to enhance the integration of climate action in tourism policies.
Draft Baku Declaration text will be made available shortly
Sectoral engagement: Strengthening the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism as a voluntary commitment to support national climate goals, by increasing the number of national tourism administrations (and national tourism organizations) and tourism stakeholders making commitments to implement integrated climate mitigation and adaptation approaches.
Become a signatory of the Glasgow Declaration
Science-based approach: Positioning the UN Statistical Framework for Measuring the Sustainability of Tourism (MST) as a tool to measure national tourism emissions, as it includes environmental data like greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy use as part of its essential pillars
Find out more about the UN Statistical Framework MST
Institutionalization: Launch of the Global Partnership for Enhanced Climate Action in Tourism as a coordination mechanism and aggregator of initiatives including the UN System and key stakeholders to ensure coherence, alignment and acceleration
Partnership Terms of Reference will be made available shortly