Sustainable Tourism and the Grand Challenge of Climate Change

Abstract

Global climate change represents a grand challenge for society, one that is increasingly influencing tourism sector investment, planning, operations, and demand. The paper provides an overview of the core challenges climate change poses to sustainable tourism, key knowledge gaps, and the state of preparedness in the tourism sector. As we begin what is widely considered a decisive climate decade, low sectoral preparedness should be highly disconcerting for the tourism community. Put bluntly, what we have done for the past 30 years has not prepared the sector for the next 30 years of accelerating climate change impacts and the transformation to a decarbonized global economy. The transition from two decades of awareness raising and ambition setting to a decade of determined collective response has massive knowledge requirements and necessitates broad sectoral commitments to: (1) improved communications and knowledge mobilization, (2) increased research capacity and interdisciplinary collaboration, and (3) strategic policy and planning engagement. We in the tourism and sustainability communities must answer this clarion call to shape the future of tourism in a decarbonized and post +3 °C world, for there can be no sustainable tourism if we fail on climate change.

Destination net-zero: what does the international energy agency roadmap mean for tourism?

“…The IEA NZ scenario and the societal transformation it implies, compels a critical research agenda to determine how the central strategies and assumptions of such scenarios that are germane to tourism could be achieved, develop new methods and information sources to understand the scope and scale of transition risk in order to inform policy innovation that might support a just transition in tourism sector, and the implications of achieving the scenario for tourism development and pursuit of the SDGs (and their post-2030 replacements). To accomplish this requires tourism scholars to reprioritize their research agenda, with less than 4% of research published in top 5 tourism journals from 2000 to 2019 dedicated to climate change (Scott, 2021). Such a major transition was accomplished with a rapid increase in research to address the informational needs of the Covid-19 pandemic.…”

“…Climate change is already influencing tourism sector investment, planning, operations, and demand (Scott, 2021;WTTC, 2017), and as the strategies summarized in Table 1 illustrate clearly, the implications of the IEA, or any, net-zero scenario pose salient and largely unrecognized transition risks for tourism. Several elements of the IEA NZ scenario will influence tourism operations and investment broadly, including worldwide carbon pricing, the massive deployment of energy efficiency technologies, and the shift to electrification dominated by renewable energy sources.…”

“…It has been previously argued that there is a salient need for the tourism research community and tourism sector to assess the implications of Paris Agreement compatible emission scenarios for global tourism and determine which may represent preferable policy pathways that support more economically efficient or rapid tourism decarbonization, and better support of tourism development consistent with the SDGs and principles of climate justice (G€ ossling, 2011;Scott, 2021;Scott et al, 2010). Diverse international research and civil society organizations have developed a range of low-carbon emission transition pathways to achieve the Paris Agreement 1.5 C target).…”

“…Diverse international research and civil society organizations have developed a range of low-carbon emission transition pathways to achieve the Paris Agreement 1.5 C target). None mention tourism (domestic or international) explicitly (G€ ossling Scott, 2021) and thus overlook the implications of their policy recommendations for what Lenzen et al (2018) estimate represents 8% of global emissions.…”

Glacier tourism and climate change: effects, adaptations, and perspectives in the Alps

“…climate risk). Recently, Scott ( 2021 ) acknowledged that climate risk management is one of the two challenges (along with carbon risk) that tourism will face in the next 30 years. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC; 2014 ) defines adaptation as a priority to cope with the effects of climate change.…”