WTTC announces Net Zero Roadmap for Travel and Tourism Industry

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) announces the launch of a Net Zero Roadmap for the Travel and Tourism sector to support the industry in combatting climate change during its virtual climate week event in New York, US. WTTC also announced the launch of new social and environmental research data, the first time such data will be produced across the whole sector. The project builds on the WTTC’s annual Economic Impact Report (EIR). These pieces of work represent WTTC’s biggest deliverables in the sector’s drive towards net zero by 2050. The initiative is being run in collaboration with the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and professional services and consulting experts, Accenture. WTTC made the announcement at its virtual ‘Net Zero Travel & Tourism – From Ambition to Action’ event, 23 September, during annual Climate Week NYC. Julia Simpson (pictured), president and CEO of WTTC, said: “The launch of our Net Zero Roadmap for the Travel & Tourism sector and development of sector wide data to measure our success are major steps to show how Travel and Tourism is playing its part in addressing climate change.” “In collaboration with UNEP and Accenture, WTTC will launch the Net Zero Roadmap for the Travel & Tourism sector at COP26 in Glasgow next month… As a sector, we are aware that not all industries can achieve such goals at the same time, which is why our Net Zero Roadmap will be so critical,” Simpson added. The Net Zero Roadmap will include a status quo overview of climate actions in Travel and Tourism, direct lessons learned from the past 18 months, and will include action frameworks for specific industries to help accelerate climate commitments and emissions reduction. During the virtual event in NYC, which was sponsored by IHG, participants discussed the sustainability challenges the Travel and Tourism sector faces, along with the creation of the way forward in the sector’s quest to become net zero.