Tourism responding to the Challenge of Climate Change

The conference “Tourism – Responding to Climate and Poverty Imperatives”, held in the context of ITB 2008, focused on tourism’s role in the global climate response in solidarity with other sectors. As one of the principle services exports in the world’s poorest and emerging countries, tourism has the potential to act effectively on the common cause of climate change response, linking it closely with the fight against poverty.

As the UN agency in charge of tourism, UNWTO is leading the positioning of the sector within the global efforts on climate response and poverty alleviation. UNWTO’s approach matches the road map laid out by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the broader UN System Agenda.

The Davos Declaration Process promoted by UNWTO “urges action by the entire tourism sector to face climate change as one of the greatest challenges to sustainable development, and to the UN Millennium Development Goals in the 21st Century.”

“Climate change response and poverty alleviation are complementary goals. All tourism stakeholders will very soon support concrete consensus measures to address these challenges. Our focus on climate change and the broader development agenda coincides with the active support of the UN Millennium Development Goals”, UNWTO Assistant Secretary-General Geoffrey Lipman.

This is the message presented by UNWTO during the thematic debate ‘Addressing Climate Change: The United Nations and the World at Work’, held in February at UN Headquarters in New York. UNWTO will mobilize its more than 150 Member States and its Affiliate Members in the private and academic community, representing a network of thousands of stakeholders in the tourism family.

By UNWTO