Why net-zero sustainable tourism by 2050 starts with you taking fewer long-haul flights
- Long-distance flights are the hardest to decarbonise, says a new report that provides a road map for net-zero sustainable tourism by 2050
- The larger takeaway: the near-impossible extremes required by every sector of travel simply confirm that the tourism industry faces crisis
If you’re concerned about climate change and wondering whether you should travel to far-flung places as often as you did before the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s a valid question. You’re not going to like the answer.
An estimated 11 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to tourism, and that’s predicted to double by 2050, the year scientists have forecast as the tipping point for all sorts of ecological disasters.
By then, our planet will have warmed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial times. By the end of the century, the figure looks to be 2 degrees Celsius, with that half degree making a huge difference.
If emissions are left unchecked, this warming will accelerate, bringing forth a heightened level of cataclysmic weather patterns.
So how can tourism fix its emissions problem?
It just needs 100 per cent sustainable aviation fuels by 2050 to power air travel. It can grow, mostly by increasing the share of short-haul trips over time – from 69 per cent in 2019 to 81 per cent by 2050 – while global travellers (that’s you) rein in the number of long-distance flights they take every year, until at least 2050.