While the world grapples with shifting Covid-19 regulations and infection rates, a different crisis simmers: slowly but surely, nightmarish climate breakdown predictions are becoming a living reality. Recognising our growing carbon problem, hundreds of businesses, governments and individuals have officially declared a climate emergency. Now, under the umbrella of the Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency initiative, almost 200 members of the travel industry, including hoteliers and tour operators, are also on board. “Over the last 15 years, the need for action has grown more obvious year on year,” says Susanne Etti, environmental impact specialist for Intrepid Travel, a small-group adventure travel company and a founding member of Tourism Declares. “Not only is the climate crisis leading to extreme weather events that threaten people and wildlife the world over, but it is also a significant threat to our business. So many of the destinations we love may well be destroyed by drought, fire or other weather events over the next decade.” Asia is likely to be one of the worst affected regions, according to Eco Business, an Asia-Pacific media organisation dedicated to sustainable development. The inhabitants of the Indonesian archipelago look on helplessly as sea levels rise. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicts that warming will increase the frequency of El Nino events, intensifying Pacific storms, which will have a disproportionate effect on the Philippines, Hong Kong and other areas regularly hit by typhoons. How Asia can beat its plastics addiction and fight climate change The Mekong River was at its lowest level in recorded history in 2019, while hundreds of people have been swept to their death by flash floods and swollen rivers brought on by extreme monsoons in Bangladesh, Nepal and India. In Pakistan, scores of people die each year because of high temperatures, and incidents such as this month’s Uttarakhand flood in the Himalayas of northern India, which claimed 68 lives (with 142 still missing), are predicted to become more common as glaciers melt at increasing rates. “Our destinations across Asia are definitely among the ones that suffer the most adverse effects of climate change, with stronger typhoons, flooding, beach erosion, rising sea levels and endangered wildlife due to the structural change of their natural habitats,” says Alexandra Michat, director of sustainability at EXO Travel, which specialises in tailor-made tours of South Asia. “We are concerned about their resilience capacity and the tremendous challenges people who live there will have to overcome in the very near future,” Michat says. And it’s not just climate breakdown that’s threatening calamity. “Alongside our carbon problem, we’re experiencing a biodiversity crisis, too,” says Anne-Kathrin Zschiegner, technical adviser for Tourism Declares founding member The Long Run, a collection of nature-based tourism businesses. “The continued destruction of habitats [lost to farming, mining or urban sprawl] means that we’re losing species at 1,000 times their natural rate of decline. The Earth’s natural carbon recycling system is broken, perpetuating the human-made crisis.” The global average level of atmospheric carbon dioxide has risen to approximately 407.4 parts per million (ppm) – an increase of 25 per cent since the 1950s. The IPCC states that the human race needs to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 so as not to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, when devastating impacts will kick in. Travel companies therefore have a vested interest in protecting the destinations they sell. Bangkok-based Khiri Travel was quick to sign up to Tourism Declares a year ago. Nia Klatte, the sustainability coordinator for the tour operator, explains: “While we believe tourism, conducted sustainably and responsibly, has positive impacts on the planet and people, we must also acknowledge the impact that tourism has on our climate.” Collectively, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the travel and tourism industry was responsible for between 8 per cent and 12 per cent of global carbon emissions. According to the Global Carbon Project, overall carbon emissions shrank by 7 per cent in 2020, while parts of the global economy were at a standstill, but we need to shrink emissions by that much every year, even as the world’s economies ramp back up. Increasingly under pressure to act, much of the travel industry is scrambling, often in the dark, for solutions. “We instantly liked the approach of Tourism Declares,” says Klatte. “First you sign the declaration accepting the IPCC advice to cut global carbon emissions in half by 2030, and then you have 12 months to develop a climate emergency plan. It’s more than just a signature or a pledge. You are asked to think about your carbon footprint, the impacts you have as a company, and what you can do to reduce your emissions.” The first hurdle for most travel companies is to measure carbon emissions. While this is simple for direct operations (known as Scope 1 and 2 emissions), it becomes more complicated when assessing individual trips (transport, food, accommodation). Once a business or destination has an idea of how much carbon its activities emit, it needs to establish a plan to reduce emissions. A quick win is to offset – buy credits to compensate for the carbon emissions your business and clients release into the atmosphere, which is significantly easier than redesigning your product. However, environmentalists agree that it’s too late to rely on offsetting. “We recognise that offsetting is no longer enough, so last year we became the first tour operator in the world to commit to science-based sustainability targets, approved by the Science Based Targets initiative,” says Etti. “This means we will be working to reduce our carbon emissions in line with a 1.5 degree future by 2035, as set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement.” By publishing and freely sharing blueprints for carbon measurement and reduction, we hope to get the whole travel industry further, quicker Jeremy Smith, Tourism Declares co-founder Klatte says: “To further reduce carbon dioxide emissions, Khiri Travel has introduced a new product line: Rediscovering the Art of Slow Travel. On these trips there will be no regional flights; all transport will be by train, car or boat. “Itineraries will typically be a minimum of 15 days. Accommodation will be vetted against Khiri’s social, cultural and environmental criteria, and excursions will benefit the host communities, mostly in less developed regions. Our Climate Emergency Plan will help us monitor, evaluate and improve our environmental impact and report progress.” Tourism Declares member TOFTigers, a collection of 300 sustainably minded operators and destination management companies in South Asia, argues that by funding conservation, it helps nature restore its balance and in the process draw carbon from the atmosphere. “Saving standing biodiverse forests is the most effective way to mitigate climate change,” says the TOFTigers website. “Protecting tiger forests [such as the Corbett Tiger Reserve in India] and other biodiverse sanctuaries in Asia is the most effective carbon storage.” As well as encouraging businesses to declare a climate emergency and establish plans to reduce emissions, Tourism Declares is pooling resources. “The focus for 2021 is to get more signatories on board and develop our blueprints for carbon measurement and reduction,” says co-founder Jeremy Smith. Being readied in time for COP26 (the UN Climate Change Conference, hosted by the UK in Glasgow, Scotland) in November, the three blueprints – for tour operators, accommodation providers and destinations – will provide the tools, frameworks and best practices needed to align tourism with a reduction in global emissions of at least half by 2030. “By publishing and freely sharing blueprints for carbon measurement and reduction, we hope to get the whole travel industry further, quicker,” says Smith. Speed is of the essence because, to paraphrase a slogan that is becoming increasingly popular, there’ll be no tourists on a dead planet. The coming months and years are a critical time in which to act, despite the continued frustrations associated with coronavirus restrictions. “If anything, the Covid-19 crisis is highlighting how much more we could be doing to combat the climate crisis,” says Etti. “It’s proven what can be achieved when governments work together, find funding, and take action.”