The role of the tourism sector in climate change - a perspective
Undeniable evidence worldwide suggests that the global climate has changed compared to pre-industrial era and the trend is expected to continue through the 21st century and beyond. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 1 documented that global
the average temperature has increased by about 0.76 ° C between 1850-1899 and 2001-2005 and came to the conclusion that most of the observed changes in global average temperatures since the mid-20th century is "very likely" the result of human activity and concentrations of greenhouse gases increase in the atmosphere.
Subsequently we observe various manifestations of climate change, such as ocean warming, continental average temperatures, temperature extremes and wind. Widespread decreases in glaciers and ice caps and ocean warming of surface temperatures contributed to the rise in sea level of 1.8 mm per year from 1961 to 2003 and about 3.1 mm year from 1993 to 2003.
The IPCC predicted that the pace of climate change accelerates with continuous greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at or above current rates. IPCC best estimate suggests that the average surface temperature worldwide will increase by 1.8 ° C and 4.0 ° C by the end of the 21st century, even with an atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases stabilized at today, the Earth will continue to warm due to emissions of greenhouse gas emissions of the past, and the thermal inertia of the oceans.
Future changes in temperature and other important climatic characteristics manifest themselves in different ways across different regions of the world. It is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more severe, with greater wind speeds and more heavy precipitation. This is associated with a continuous increase in the surface temperature of the tropical seas. Way of extra-tropical storms are projected to move poleward, with changes in wind patterns, precipitation and temperature. Decrease in snow cover are also planned to continue.
Environmental and economic risks associated with climate change projections are considerable. The gravity of the situation has led to several recent discussions of international politics. The IPCC has come to conclusions that climate change could impede the ability of many countries to achieve sustainable development. The Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change has found that the actual cost of reducing GHG emissions is much less than the future costs of social and economic disruption caused by unchecked climate change. Each economic sectors and countries will face the challenges of climate change through adaptation and mitigation change.
Tourism is no exception and in the coming decades, climate change will have a major role in the development and management of tourism. With its close links with the environment, tourism is considered a highly climate-sensitive sector. The regional manifestations of climate change will be of great importance for the tourism sector which requires the adaptation of all key stakeholders in the tourism sector. In fact, it is not a distant future for tourism because many impacts of climate change are already evident in destinations worldwide.
As another side of the story above, tourism itself is a major contributor to climate change through emissions of greenhouse gases, mainly from transport and accommodation for tourists change. The tourism sector must play a proactive role in reducing emissions of greenhouse gas emissions significantly in line with the "Vienna Climate Change Talks 2007", recognizing that global emissions of greenhouse gas emissions reach their peak in the next 10-15 then reduced to very low levels, well below half of 2000 levels by mid-century. The great challenge of the tourism sector to respond to the international agenda for sustainable development and management of the use and emissions of greenhouse gases higher energy from a massive growth in activities planned for the area.
The concern of the tourism community in relation to the issue of climate change has increased significantly over the past five years. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) and other partner organizations conducted the first International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism in Djerba, Tunisia, in 2003, the Djerba Declaration recognized the complex relationship between tourism and climate and establish a framework for adaptation and mitigation change. A number of associations and businesses in the tourism industry of the individual also showed great concern for the voluntary adoption of targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, participation in public education campaigns on climate change and support for climate change legislation government.
Direct impacts
Climate determines the seasonality of demand and influences costs, such as heating, cooling, snowmaking, irrigation, water supply and food tourism operating tastes. Therefore, changes in the length and quality of tourism seasons climate dependent (ie, sun and sea holiday or winter sports) could have a significant impact on the competitive relationship between destinations and therefore, the profitability of tourism enterprises. Consequently, we expect the competitive position of certain areas to reduce popular holiday, while others are expected to improve.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that a number of changes in extreme weather conditions are likely as a result of projected climate change. This includes up to higher and the days warmer temperatures, more intense storms and winds, more intense rainfall and longer and more severe droughts in many areas. These changes will have a direct impact on the tourism industry by increasing the damage of the infrastructure, the need for additional emergency, operating costs higher response and business interruption.
Indirect impacts
Environmental conditions are essential resources for tourism, a wide range of environmental changes due to climate change will have serious adverse effects on tourism. Changes in the availability of water, loss of biodiversity, reduction of landscape aesthetics, increased natural hazards, coastal erosion and flooding, damage to infrastructure, increased incidence of diseases transmitted by vectors, have a tourism impact to varying degrees. The mountainous regions and coastal destinations are considered particularly sensitive to environmental changes caused by climate, such as segments of the tourism market based on nature. Security risks related to climate change have been identified in a number of areas where tourism is very important for the local and national economies. Tourists, especially foreign tourists, are opposed to political instability and social unrest. Reduction in tourism demand will affect many countries in the form of reduced income (gross domestic product). This can lead to social unrest among the population about the distribution of wealth that will lead to a further decline in demand for tourist destination.
Tourists have a great ability to adapt with relative freedom to avoid destinations impacted by climate change or shifting travel times to avoid bad weather. Suppliers of tourism services and tourism operators to specific destinations have an ability to adapt. Major operators who have not the infrastructure, are in a better position to adapt to changes in the locations where they can respond to customer inquiries and provide information to influence travel choices of customers. Destination communities and tourism operators with large investments in capital goods motionless (eg, hotel, resort, marina or casino) have the least capacity to adapt. However, the dynamic nature of the tourism industry and its ability to cope with a number of recent major shocks such as SARS, terrorist attacks in several countries, or the Asian tsunami, suggests adaptability relatively high in the tourism industry.
Carbon emissions measurement generated by tourism
The tourism sector is not defined by the goods and services it produces, but by the nature of consumers in a wide range of goods and services separate. This suggests that tourism is defined on the basis of consumption rather than produc¬tion. Since tourism is defined consumers, it is important to define a tourist. World Tourism Organization defines tourism as a whole "the activities of persons and remains trav¬elling other than their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other areas." This means that business travelers and "visiting friends and relatives are also considered and leisure travelers as well as tourists.
As part of the accounting for energy consumption and emissions of carbon dioxide resulting is essential to distinguish between such indirect effects of tourism activities. Direct impacts are those that result directly from tourism activities, while indirect impacts are associated with intermediate inputs processes second or third (or more) round. Becken and Patterson measure carbon emissions from tourism activities in New Zealand. The methodology chosen primarily focused on direct impacts. Its methodology focuses only on carbon dioxide as the main greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and does not consider the emission of other greenhouse gases. This omission is acceptable for burning earth Original fuel (eg, transportation or lodging) activities, where carbon dioxide is the greenhouse gas emissions. It has been estimated that carbon dioxide accounts for about one third of total emissions. Therefore, a factor of 2.7 has been proposed to include the effects of other emissions such as nitrogen oxides, etc.
Table 1: energy intensities and emission of carbon dioxide factors
The transport energy intensity (MJ / pkm) Factor of CO2 (g / pkm)
National Air 2.8 188.9
Car 1.0 68.7
Car / company car / cab 0.9 62.7
Trainer 1.0 69.2
Camper Van 2.1 140.9
Train (diesel) 1.4 98.9
Moto 0.9 57.9
Bus expected 0.8 51.4
backpacker bus 0.6 39.7
Cook Strait Ferry 165.1 2.4
The energy intensity of housing (MJ / visitor night) Factor 2 CO (g / visitor night)
Hotel 155 7895
b & b 110 4142
Motel 32 1378
Hostel / Backpackers 39 1619
Camping 25 1364
Attractions / energy intensity (MJ / visit) CO Factor 2
(G / visit)
Buildings (eg museums) 4172
Nature activity 8417
The 27697 424 air activity
Activity of 202 motorized water 15312
Adventure recreation 43 2241
Nature Recreation 70 1674
Source: Becken and Patterson (2006)
Behavior of average travel for six international tourism: Table 2
International tourist tourist tourist VFR 2001 Coach Auto Back¬packer flexible comfort Camper
Number of tourists 429.159 343.577 247.972 131.419 84.195 42.966
Transportation km
National Air 755 436 281 241 186 431
Car Rental 153 180 1483 748 856 743
Private car 8 529 25 298 104 61
Coach 756 53 173 310 68 264
Camper van 0 6 4 May 1579 35
Planned 25 77 22 491 62 120 Bus
Station 35 17 10 40 20 215
Ferry 10 11 32 63 64 35
backpacker bus 1 16 1 471 11 8
Cruise 12 1 4 1 0 0
nights accommodation
Hotel 7.5 1.0 2.4 1.3 0.7 3.3
Motel 0.2 1.2 9.1 0.4 0.9 1.2
Home 35.7 0.2 1.4 2.1 2.5 2.5
backpackers 0.2 1.2 0.2 23.3 1.6 2.2
Campgrounds 0.1 0.6 0.2 1.2 20.4 0.3
b & b 0.0 0.1 1.1 0.1 0.1 17.3
The total energy per tourist (DOJ) 3538 3649 3440 3657 6306 5035
Source: Becken and Cavanagh (2003)
Table 3: Total energy consumption of the tourism industry in New Zealand (transportation, lodging, attractions) for 2000
Tourists travel 2000 2000 Energy (PJ) CO2 emissions (kt)
International 1648988 434 7.59
Internal 16554006 17.76 1115
Total 18,202,944 25.35 1549
Source: Becken (2002)
In another recent study by an international team of experts, which was commissioned by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the Programme of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) to provide basic information for the Second International Conference on Climate change and Tourism (Davos, Switzerland 1-3 October 2007), it was estimated emissions of global tourism. The study suggested that emissions of the three main sub-sectors of the domestic and international tourism are estimated to represent 5.0% of total global emissions in 2005 (Table 4). The study also suggests, as is clear from Table 4 that the transport generates about 75% of total CO2 emissions from tourism in the world. Air transportation alone accounts for 40% of total CO2 emissions.
Table 4: Emissions from tourism in 2005
Source CO2 (Mt)% to the total emissions of Tourism
517 air transport 39.6
Another 468 35.8 Transportation
Accommodation 274 21.0
Other Activities 45 3.4
Total 1,307,100
The total emission of 26,400 worldwide
Share (%) 4,95 Tourism
Task ahead
In recent UNFCCC negotiations (Vienna Climate Change Talks 2007), it was recognized that global emissions of greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced to well below half of 2000 levels over the next century. Therefore, mitigation of GHG emissions of particular importance for the tourism sector as well. However, mitigation strategies must also take into account several other dimensions, with the need to stabilize the global climate. These questions are the right people to rest and recover and recreation, achieving the Millennium Development Goals of the United Nations, the growth of savings and so on. With these, mitigation policies should target different groups of stakeholders, including tourists, tour operators, accommodation managers, airlines, automotive and aircraft manufacturers, as well as destination managers. Mitigation instruments must meet several key issues in different regions.
There could be four main mitigation strategies to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases tourist-1) reduce energy consumption, 2) improvement of energy efficiency, 3) increase the use of renewable energy and 4) carbon sequestration by sinks. In the recent past, climate change and its impacts in different sectors and acknowledged a key area of research in India. However, to date there is no research on the impact of tourism on climate change and measuring the emission of greenhouse gas tourism activities greenhouse. Given the growth of tourism in the home and on the international market, it is important that the government, the research community and other relevant organizations to take the initiative to understand the current situation regarding the contribution tourism to issue greenhouse in the country. This will enable decision makers to opt for measures to reduce emissions without creating obstacles to the growth of the sector, which is crucial for the country's economy.
references
Becken, S. (2002a) Analysing international tourist flows to estimate energy use associated with air travel. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 10 (2).
Becken, S. (2006) Measurement of Emissions of national carbon dioxide tourism as a key step towards achieving sustainable tourism, Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 14 (4).
S., Frampton, C and Simmons, D. (2001) patterns of energy consumption in the accommodation sector - the case of New Zealand, Ecological Economics 39, 371-86.
Gössling, S. (2002) the impact on the global tourism environment, Global Environmental Change 12 (4), 283-302.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2007b). Summary for Policymakers. In: M.L.Parry, O.F. Canziani, JP Palutikof, PJ van der Linden and CE Hanson (Eds.), Climate Change 2007: Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability.
Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. University World Tourism Organization of the United Nations Cambridge Press (2003). Climate Change and Tourism: Proceedings of Thefirst International Conference on Climate Change and Tourism, Djerba, Tunisia, 9-11 April 2003, Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
Peeters, P. (2007). Tourism and Climate Change Mitigation - Methods, and political Reductbns greenhouse gas emissions. NHTV University Study No. 6 NHTV. Breda, The Netherlands: University of Breda.
The "Vienna Climate Change Talks 2007" represent the latest international negotiations on reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the auspices of the United Nations
