Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • View all journals
  • Explore content
  • About the journal
  • Publish with us
  • Sign up for alerts
  • Published: 07 May 2018

The carbon footprint of global tourism

  • Manfred Lenzen   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0828-5288 1 ,
  • Ya-Yen Sun 2 , 3 ,
  • Futu Faturay   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5636-1794 1 , 4 ,
  • Yuan-Peng Ting 2 ,
  • Arne Geschke   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-9193-5829 1 &
  • Arunima Malik   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-4630-9869 1 , 5  

Nature Climate Change volume  8 ,  pages 522–528 ( 2018 ) Cite this article

29k Accesses

782 Citations

3338 Altmetric

Metrics details

  • Attribution
  • Climate-change impacts

An Author Correction to this article was published on 23 May 2018

This article has been updated

Tourism contributes significantly to global gross domestic product, and is forecast to grow at an annual 4%, thus outpacing many other economic sectors. However, global carbon emissions related to tourism are currently not well quantified. Here, we quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 countries, and their carbon footprints under origin and destination accounting perspectives. We find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO 2 e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors. The majority of this footprint is exerted by and in high-income countries. The rapid increase in tourism demand is effectively outstripping the decarbonization of tourism-related technology. We project that, due to its high carbon intensity and continuing growth, tourism will constitute a growing part of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access Nature and 54 other Nature Portfolio journals

Get Nature+, our best-value online-access subscription

24,99 € / 30 days

cancel any time

Subscribe to this journal

Receive 12 print issues and online access

195,33 € per year

only 16,28 € per issue

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

global tourism carbon footprint

Change history

23 may 2018.

In the version of this Article originally published, in the penultimate paragraph of the section “Gas species and supply chains”, in the sentence “In this assessment, the contribution of air travel emissions amounts to 20% (0.9 GtCO2e) of tourism’s global carbon footprint...” the values should have read “12% (0.55 GtCO2e)”; this error has now been corrected, and Supplementary Table 9 has been amended to clarify this change.

Travel & Tourism: Economic Impact 2017 (World Travel & Tourism Council, 2017); https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/regions-2017/world2017.pdf

UNWTO Tourism Highlights 2016 Edition (World Tourism Organization, 2016); http://www.e-unwto.org/doi/pdf/10.18111/9789284418145

Gössling, S. Global environmental consequences of tourism. Glob. Environ. Change 12 , 283–302 (2002).

Google Scholar  

Scott, D., Gössling, S. & Hall, C. M. International tourism and climate change. WIREs Clim. Change 3 , 213–232 (2012).

Puig, R. et al. Inventory analysis and carbon footprint of coastland-hotel services: a Spanish case study. Sci. Total Environ. 595 , 244–254 (2017).

CAS   Google Scholar  

El Hanandeh, A. Quantifying the carbon footprint of religious tourism: the case of Hajj. J. Clean. Prod. 52 , 53–60 (2013).

Pereira, R. P. T., Ribeiro, G. M. & Filimonau, V. The carbon footprint appraisal of local visitor travel in Brazil: a case of the Rio de Janeiro–São Paulo itinerary. J. Clean. Prod. 141 , 256–266 (2017).

Munday, M., Turner, K. & Jones, C. Accounting for the carbon associated with regional tourism consumption. Tour. Manag. 36 , 35–44 (2013).

Sun, Y.-Y. A framework to account for the tourism carbon footprint at island destinations. Tour. Manage. 45 , 16–27 (2014).

Cadarso, M. Á., Gómez, N., López, L. A. & Tobarra, M. A. Calculating tourism ’ s carbon footprint: measuring the impact of investments. J. Clean. Prod. 111 , 529–537 (2016).

Cadarso, M.-Á., Gómez, N., López, L.-A., TobarraM.-Á. & Zafrilla, J.-E. Quantifying Spanish tourism ’ s carbon footprint: the contributions of residents and visitors: a longitudinal study. J. Sustain. Tour. 23 , 922–946 (2015).

Becken, S. & Patterson, M. Measuring national carbon dioxide emissions from tourism as a key step towards achieving sustainable tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 14 , 323–338 (2006).

Dwyer, L., Forsyth, P., Spurr, R. & Hoque, S. Estimating the carbon footprint of Australian tourism. J. Sustain. Tour. 18 , 355–376 (2010).

Sharp, H., Grundius, J. & Heinonen, J. Carbon footprint of inbound tourism to Iceland: a consumption-based life-cycle assessment including direct and indirect emissions. Sustainability 8 , 1147 (2016).

Luo, F., Becken, S. & Zhong, Y. Changing travel patterns in China and ‘carbon footprint’ implications for a domestic tourist destination. Tour. Manag. 65 , 1–13 (2018).

Climate Change and Tourism—Responding to Global Challenges (World Tourist Organisation, United Nations Environment Programme, World Meteorological Organisation, 2008); http://sdt.unwto.org/sites/all/files/docpdf/climate2008.pdf

Peeters, P. & Dubois, G. Tourism travel under climate change mitigation constraints. J. Transp. Geogr. 18 , 447–457 (2010).

Gössling, S. & Peeters, P. Assessing tourism ’ s global environmental impact 1900–2050. J. Sustain. Tour. 23 , 639–659 (2015).

Kander, A., Jiborn, M., Moran, D. D. & Wiedmann, T. O. National greenhouse-gas accounting for effective climate policy on international trade. Nat. Clim. Change 5 , 431–435 (2015).

ICAO Environmental Report 2016—Aviation and Climate Change (International Civil Aviation Organization, 2016).

Lee, D. S. et al. Transport impacts on atmosphere and climate: aviation. Atmos. Environ. 44 , 4678–4734 (2010).

Perch-Nielsen, S., Sesartic, A. & Stucki, M. The greenhouse gas intensity of the tourism sector: the case of Switzerland. Environ. Sci. Policy 13 , 131–140 (2010).

Peters, G., Minx, J., Weber, C. & Edenhofer, O. Growth in emission transfers via international trade from 1990 to 2008. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 108 , 8903–8908 (2011).

Malik, A., Lan, J. & Lenzen, M. Trends in global greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to 2010. Environ. Sci. Technol. 50 , 4722–4730 (2016).

GDP Per Capita, Current Prices (International Monetary Fund, 2017); http://www.imf.org/external/datamapper/NGDPDPC@WEO/OEMDC/ADVEC/WEOWORLD

Annual Energy Outlook 2017 With Projections to 2050 (US Energy Information Administration, 2017); https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/aeo/pdf/0383(2017).pdf

OECD Environmental Outlook to 2050 (OECD Environment Directorate, PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, 2011); https://www.oecd.org/env/cc/49082173.pdf

Wier, M., Lenzen, M., Munksgaard, J. & Smed, S. Effects of household consumption patterns on CO 2 requirements. Econ. Syst. Res. 13 , 259–274 (2001).

Lenzen, M. et al. A comparative multivariate analysis of household energy requirements in Australia, Brazil, Denmark, India and Japan. Energy 31 , 181–207 (2006).

Lenzen, M., Dey, C. & Foran, B. Energy requirements of Sydney households. Ecol. Econ. 49 , 375–399 (2004).

Garin-Munoz, T. & Amaral, T. P. An econometric model for international tourism flows to Spain. Appl. Econ. Lett. 7 , 525–529 (2000).

Lim, C., Min, J. C. H. & McAleer, M. Modelling income effects on long and short haul international travel from Japan. Tour. Manage. 29 , 1099–1109 (2008).

Song, H. & Wong, K. K. Tourism demand modeling: a time-varying parameter approach. J. Travel Res. 42 , 57–64 (2003).

Cohen, C. A. M. J., Lenzen, M. & Schaeffer, R. Energy requirements of households in Brazil. Energy Policy 55 , 555–562 (2005).

Mishra, S. S. & Bansal, V. Role of source–destination proximity in international inbound tourist arrival: empirical evidences from India. Asia Pac. J. Tour. Res. 22 , 540–553 (2017).

Wong, I. A., Fong, L. H. N. & LawR. A longitudinal multilevel model of tourist outbound travel behavior and the dual-cycle model. J. Travel Res. 55 , 957–970 (2016).

Dubois, G. & Ceron, J. P. Tourism/leisure greenhouse gas emissions forecasts for 2050: factors for change in France. J. Sustain. Tour. 14 , 172–191 (2006).

Filimonau, V., Dickinson, J. & Robbins, D. The carbon impact of short-haul tourism: a case study of UK travel to southern France using life cycle analysis. J. Clean. Prod. 64 , 628–638 (2014).

Gössling, S., Scott, D. & Hall, C. M. Inter-market variability in CO 2 emission-intensities in tourism: implications for destination marketing and carbon management. Tour. Manage. 46 , 203–212 (2015).

Gössling, S. et al. The eco-efficiency of tourism. Ecol. Econ. 54 , 417–434 (2005).

Hatfield-Dodds, S. et al. Australia is ‘free to choose’ economic growth and falling environmental pressures. Nature 527 , 49–53 (2015).

Lenzen, M., Malik, A. & Foran, B. How challenging is decoupling for Australia?. J. Clean. Prod. 139 , 796–798 (2016).

Gössling., S. Sustainable tourism development in developing countries: some aspects of energy use. J. Sustain. Tour. 8 , 410–425 (2000).

Székely, T. Hungary plans ‘major touristic developments’ to double income from foreign tourism. Hungary Today (13 February 2017); http://hungarytoday.hu/news/hungary-plans-several-major-touristic-developments-double-income-foreign-tourism-45636

Nepal unveils plans to double tourist arrival. Nepal24Hours (12 December 2012); http://www.nepal24hours.com/nepal-unveils-plans-to-double-tourist-arrival

Murai, S. Japan doubles overseas tourist target for 2020. Japan Times (30 March 2016); https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/03/30/national/japan-doubles-overseas-tourist-target-2020/#.Wh_XplWWapo

McElroy, J. L. Small island tourist economies across the life cycle. Asia. Pac. Viewp. 47 , 61–77 (2006).

Lenzen, M. Sustainable island businesses: a case study of Norfolk Island. J. Clean. Prod. 16 , 2018–2035 (2008).

de Bruijn, K., Dirven, R., Eijgelaar, E. & Peeters, P. Travelling Large in 2013: The Carbon Footprint of Dutch Holidaymakers in 2013 and the Development Since 2002 (NHTV Breda University of Applied Sciences, 2014).

Sun, Y. -Y. Decomposition of tourism greenhouse gas emissions: revealing the dynamics between tourism economic growth, technological efficiency, and carbon emissions. Tour. Manage. 55 , 326–336 (2016).

Wilkinson, P. F. Island tourism: sustainable perspectives. Ann. Tour. Res. 39 , 505–506 (2012).

Tourism Statistics (World Tourism Organization, 2017); http://www.e-unwto.org/loi/unwtotfb

Lenzen, M., Kanemoto, K., Moran, D. & Geschke, A. Mapping the structure of the world economy. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46 , 8374–8381 (2012).

Lenzen, M., Moran, D., Kanemoto, K. & Geschke, A. Building EORA: a global multi-region input–output database at high country and sector resolution. Econ. Syst. Res. 25 , 20–49 (2013).

Leontief, W. W. & Strout, A. A. in Structural Interdependence and Economic Development (ed. Barna, T.) 119–149 (Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1963).

Oita, A. et al. Substantial nitrogen pollution embedded in international trade. Nat. Geosci. 9 , 111–115 (2016).

Feng, K., Davis, S. J., Sun, L. & Hubacek, K. Drivers of the US CO 2 emissions 1997–2013. Nat. Commun. 6 , 7714 (2015).

Steinberger, J. K., Roberts, J. T., Peters, G. P. & Baiocchi, G. Pathways of human development and carbon emissions embodied in trade. Nat. Clim. Change 2 , 81–85 (2012).

Lenzen, M. et al. International trade drives biodiversity threats in developing nations. Nature 486 , 109–112 (2012).

Lin, J. et al. Global climate forcing of aerosols embodied in international trade. Nat. Geosci. 9 , 790 (2016).

Dalin, C., Wada, Y., Kastner, T. & Puma, M. J. Groundwater depletion embedded in international food trade. Nature 543 , 700 (2017).

Zhang, Q. et al. Transboundary health impacts of transported global air pollution and international trade. Nature 543 , 705 (2017).

Travel & Tourism: Economic Impact Research Methodology (World Travel & Tourism Council, Oxford Economics, 2017); https://www.wttc.org/-/media/files/reports/economic-impact-research/2017-documents/2017_methodology-final.pdf

Leontief, W. Input–Output Economics (Oxford Univ. Press, Oxford, 1966).

Dixon, R. Inter-industry transactions and input–output analysis. Aust. Econ. Rev. 3 , 327–336 (1996).

Munksgaard, J. & Pedersen, K. A. CO 2 accounts for open economies: producer or consumer responsibility? Energy Policy 29 , 327–334 (2001).

Kanemoto, K. & Murray, J. in The Sustainability Practitioner’s Guide to Input–Output Analysis (eds Murray, J. & Wood, R.) 167–178 (Common Ground, Champaign, 2010).

Kanemoto, K., Lenzen, M., Peters, G. P., Moran, D. & Geschke, A. Frameworks for comparing emissions associated with production, consumption and International trade. Environ. Sci. Technol. 46 , 172–179 (2012).

Waugh, F. V. Inversion of the Leontief matrix by power series. Econometrica 18 , 142–154 (1950).

Lenzen, M. et al. The Global MRIO Lab—charting the world economy. Econ. Syst. Res. 29 , 158–186 (2017).

Systems of National Accounts (International Monetary Fund, Commission of the European Communities-Euro-Stat, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, World Bank, United Nations, 1993).

TSA Data Around the World: Worldwide Summary (World Tourism Organization, 2010).

Tourism Statistics 2009–2013 (World Tourism Organization, 2009–2013).

Chasapopoulos, P., den Butter, F. A. & Mihaylov, E. Demand for tourism in Greece: a panel data analysis using the gravity model. Int. J. Tour. Policy 5 , 173–191 (2014).

Morley, C., Rosselló, J. & Santana-Gallego, M. Gravity models for tourism demand: theory and use. Ann. Tour. Res. 48 , 1–10 (2014).

Lloyd, S. M. & Ries, R. Characterizing, propagating, and analyzing uncertainty in life-cycle assessment: a survey of quantitative approaches. J. Indust. Ecol. 11 , 161–179 (2007).

Imbeault-Tétreault, H., Jolliet, O., Deschênes, L. & Rosenbaum, R. K. Analytical propagation of uncertainty in life cycle assessment using matrix formulation. J. Indust. Ecol. 17 , 485–492 (2013).

Lenzen, M. Aggregation versus disaggregation in input-output analysis of the environment. Econ. Syst. Res 23 , 73–89 (2011).

Bullard, C. W. & Sebald, A. V. Effects of parametric uncertainty and technological change on input-output models. Rev. Econ. Stat. 59 , 75–81 (1977).

Bullard, C. W. & Sebald, A. V. Monte Carlo sensitivity analysis of input-output models. Rev. Econ. Stat. 70 , 708–712 (1988).

Nansai, K., Tohno, S. & Kasahara, M. Uncertainty of the embodied CO2 emission intensity and reliability of life cycle inventory analysis by input-output approach (in Japanese). Energy Resour . 22 , (2001).

Yoshida, Y. et al. Reliability of LCI considering the uncertainties of energy consumptions in input-output analyses. Appl. Energy 73 , 71–82 (2002).

Lenzen, M., Wood, R. & Wiedmann, T. Uncertainty analysis for multi-region input-output models — a case study of the UK’s carbon footprint. Econ. Syst. Res 22 , 43–63 (2010).

Download references

Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Australian Research Council through its Discovery Projects DP0985522 and DP130101293, the National eResearch Collaboration Tools and Resources project (NeCTAR) through its Industrial Ecology Virtual Laboratory, and the Taiwan Ministry of Science and Technology (no. 105-2410-H-006-055-MY3). The authors thank S. Juraszek for expertly managing the Global IELab’s advanced computation requirements, and C. Jarabak for help with collecting data.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

ISA, School of Physics A28, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Manfred Lenzen, Futu Faturay, Arne Geschke & Arunima Malik

Department of Transportation & Communication Management Science, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan City, Taiwan, Republic of China

Ya-Yen Sun & Yuan-Peng Ting

UQ Business School, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Fiscal Policy Agency, Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia, Jakarta, Indonesia

Futu Faturay

Sydney Business School, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Arunima Malik

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Y.-Y.S. and M.L. conceived and designed the experiments. M.L., Y.-Y.S., F.F., Y.-P.T., A.G. and A.M. performed the experiments. F.F., Y.-P.T., M.L. and Y.-Y.S. analysed the data. Y.-P.T., A.G., Y.-Y.S. and M.L. contributed materials/analysis tools. M.L., Y.-Y.S. and A.M. wrote the paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Arunima Malik .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher’s note: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information.

Supplementary Methods, Supplementary Notes, Supplementary Data, Supplementary Results, Supplementary Figures 1–13, Supplementary Tables 1–14, Supplementary Discussion and Supplementary References

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Lenzen, M., Sun, YY., Faturay, F. et al. The carbon footprint of global tourism. Nature Clim Change 8 , 522–528 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x

Download citation

Received : 05 December 2017

Accepted : 20 March 2018

Published : 07 May 2018

Issue Date : June 2018

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

This article is cited by

Assessment of low-carbon tourism development from multi-aspect analysis: a case study of the yellow river basin, china.

  • Xiaopeng Si

Scientific Reports (2024)

Advancing towards carbon-neutral events

  • Danyang Cheng

Nature Climate Change (2024)

“Long COVID” and Its Impact on The Environment: Emerging Concerns and Perspectives

  • Shilpa Patial
  • Pankaj Raizada

Environmental Management (2024)

Green finance, renewable energy, and inbound tourism: a case study of 30 provinces in China

  • Lingrou Zhu
  • Yunfeng Shang
  • Fangbin Qian

Economic Change and Restructuring (2024)

Exploring the impact of climate change on lodging establishments: a systematic literature review

  • Eduardo Leite
  • Vahid Ghasemi

Quality & Quantity (2024)

Quick links

  • Explore articles by subject
  • Guide to authors
  • Editorial policies

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

global tourism carbon footprint

global tourism carbon footprint

Carbon Footprint of Tourism

How travel is contributing to the climate emergency.

Tourism is responsible for roughly  8%  of the world’s carbon emissions. From plane flights and boat rides to souvenirs and lodging, various activities contribute to tourism’s carbon footprint. The majority of this footprint is emitted by visitors from high-income countries, with U.S. travelers at the top of the list. As the number of people who can afford to travel grows, so will tourism’s environmental footprint.

Keep reading to learn about some of the different ways that travel produces CO2. 

global tourism carbon footprint

This graph shows the different activities that contribute to tourism’s total carbon footprint.

Data Source:  Nature Climate Change (2018)

Getting from here to there is the most basic component of tourism. Planes, cars, trains, boats, and even hot air balloons allow us to explore destinations all around the world. However, all of our jet-setting and road-tripping comes with a hefty carbon footprint. 

Today, transportation is tourism’s main source of greenhouse gas emissions. On average, planes and cars generate the most CO2 per passenger mile, with tour buses, ferries, and trains coming well behind. In recent years, the number of people traveling internationally skyrocketed as airfare became more affordable. Similarly, between 2005 and 2016, transport-related tourism emissions increased by more than  60% .

global tourism carbon footprint

These are averages based on  2020 UK conversion factors.  Values will vary based on distance traveled, vehicle model, occupancy rate, flight class, and various other factors.

It would take an acre of forest a year to absorb the same  amount  of CO2 emissions of a one-way flight from London to New York. That’s about the same  amount  of emissions that the average person in Zimbabwe generates over an entire year.

In the same way your house generates emissions from energy use, so do the hotels, homestays, and rental homes that you stay in while on vacation. Many accommodations rely on heating and air conditioning to keep guest rooms at a pleasant temperature in hot or cold climates. These energy-intensive systems create CO2, as do the water heaters used to warm showers, pools, and spas. Electricity used to power lights, TVs, refrigerators, laundry machines, and other equipment is also a big contributor, especially in areas with dated or inefficient systems. 

Emissions from lodging tend to be highest in resorts and hotels that offer modern services, while smaller lodgings such as homestays and guest houses have lower emissions for the most part.

global tourism carbon footprint

Data Source:  Caribbean Hotel Energy Efficiency Action Program (2012)

While hotels can lessen their footprint by utilizing clean energy sources, most still depend on dirty fossil fuels for the majority of their energy. According to the 2018  Green Lodging Trends Report , only 21% of hotels currently have on-site renewable energy.

Construction

Resorts, airports, and other tourism facilities can produce massive amounts of carbon even before they open their doors to tourists. Constructing a new building is an energy-intensive process – manufacturing the materials, transporting everything to the site, and constructing the building all generate carbon emissions. And it’s not just buildings that leave behind a footprint – the development of roads and other infrastructure for tourism also contributes to climate change.

Destruction of Carbon Sinks

Along with the construction process, tourism development emits carbon through the clearing of natural areas. Ecosystems, such as forests, act as carbon sinks by absorbing and storing emissions. When this carbon-rich vegetation is removed, CO2 is released back into the atmosphere. 

The mangrove forests that grow along coastlines in many tropical destinations have a tremendous capacity to store carbon. Studies show that they can store up to  4 times  more carbon than most other tropical forests around the world. Sadly, vast areas of mangroves are often cleared to make way for tourist infrastructure such as seaside resorts, beaches, marinas, and entertainment areas.  

global tourism carbon footprint

The world lost a football field-sized area of tropical forest every five seconds in 2019, causing the same amount of carbon emissions that  400 million  cars would produce over an entire year

Food & Drink

Food production is responsible for roughly  one-quarter  of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Getting food from farm to table means growing, processing, transporting, packaging, refrigerating, and cooking – all of which require energy and contribute to your meal’s carbon footprint. Travel often multiplies this footprint since people tend to indulge more while on vacation. 

To cater to visitor tastes, many hotels and restaurants import the majority of their food products from other countries. Remote island destinations are especially dependent on imports. It is estimated that up to  80%  of the food consumed by the tourism industry in Pacific islands is brought in from overseas. The farther food travels, the more emissions are generated – and to get food to these secluded islands, it has to travel a very long way

Thanks to all-you-can eat hotel buffets and oversized restaurant portions, a substantial amount of the food produced for tourism ends up getting thrown away. When food is wasted, this means that all of those emissions that were generated by its production were unnecessary. Globally, less than half of hotels compost their food waste. When this food decomposes in landfills it creates methane which is  21 times  more potent than carbon dioxide. 

global tourism carbon footprint

Data Source: Waste & Resources Action Programme    

Wastage of food in tourism is part of a larger, global issue. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s  3rd largest  emitter of CO2. 

Though every trip must eventually come to an end, tourists are sure to return home with magnets, hats, art pieces, and other trinkets to remind them of their vacation. But traveler purchases aren’t limited to kitschy souvenirs. From street markets to high-end boutiques, shopping is now a travel experience in itself. 

Whether its jewelry or electronics, the carbon footprint of an item must be calculated with production, manufacturing and shipping in mind. There’s something special about purchasing an item that was made locally in the destination, yet oftentimes souvenirs and other products are mass-produced in factories far away. An item may have travelled between a number of countries and continents before reaching its final destination. For example, the cotton used to make a t-shirt sold in New York may have originated from China, been shipped to Vietnam for manufacturing then flown to New York for sale. Travelers’ buying habits are often different from locals’, thus increasing production emissions.

global tourism carbon footprint

Looking Ahead

With the impacts of climate change becoming increasingly evident, it is critical that local governments, tourism businesses and suppliers, along with individual travelers all take action to reduce the industry’s reliance on fossil fuels.

New technologies such as solar-powered water heaters, temperature control systems, and energy saving appliances allow the industry to lessen its carbon footprint. Yet these innovations are not enough to outweigh the emissions created by a growing number of travelers.  Projections  indicate that tourism emissions could reach 6.5 billion metric tons by 2025. This represents a 44% increase from 2013, and is equivalent to about 13% of  current  global greenhouse gas emissions. For those emissions that aren’t yet avoidable,  carbon offsetting  should be used to complement sustainability practices and reduce tourism’s carbon footprint.

What You Can Do

global tourism carbon footprint

Use our online calculator to determine the amount of emissions generated by your travels

global tourism carbon footprint

Lessen the carbon footprint of your next trip by adopting these sustainable travel practices

global tourism carbon footprint

Your carbon footprint by supporting forestry or energy projects that reduce CO2 and benefit communities

Stay Connected

Join our mailing list to receive email updates about our work and learn how you can make a difference!

Newsletter Signup

  • Enter your email address
  • Comments This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
  • © 2024 | Sustainable Travel International
  • Privacy Policy

global tourism carbon footprint

Download Our Sustainable Travel Tips List

Subscribe to get your free tips list, plus sustainable travel emails and content

global tourism carbon footprint

The carbon footprint of tourism revealed (it’s bigger than we thought)

global tourism carbon footprint

Lecturer in Sustainability, University of Sydney

global tourism carbon footprint

Senior Lecturer, The University of Queensland

Disclosure statement

Dr Ya-Yen Sun receives funding from the Taiwan Ministry Science and Technology.

Arunima Malik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Sydney and University of Queensland provide funding as members of The Conversation AU.

View all partners

The carbon footprint of tourism is about four times larger than previously thought, according to a world-first study published today in Nature Climate Change .

Researchers from the University of Sydney, University of Queensland and National Cheng Kung University – including ourselves – worked together to assess the entire supply chain of tourism. This includes transportation, accommodation, food and beverages, souvenirs, clothing, cosmetics and other goods.

Put together, global tourism produces about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, much more than previous estimates .

Adding it all up

Tourism is a trillion-dollar industry , and is growing faster than international trade.

To determine the true emissions produced by tourism, we scanned over a billion supply chains of a range of commodities consumed by tourists. By combining a detailed international trade database with accounts tracking what goods and services tourists bought, we identified carbon flows between 160 countries from 2009 to 2013.

Our results show that tourism-related emissions increased by around 15% over that period, from 3.9 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e) to 4.5Gt. This rise primarily came from tourist spending on transport, shopping and food.

global tourism carbon footprint

We estimate that our growing appetite for travel and a business-as-usual scenario would increase carbon emissions from global tourism to about 6.5Gt by 2025. This increase is largely driven by rising incomes, making tourism highly income-elastic and carbon-intensive.

Whose responsibility is it?

In the study, we compared two perspectives for allocating responsibility for these emissions: residence-based accounting and destination-based accounting. The former perspective allocates emissions to the country of residence of tourists, the latter to the country of destination. Put simply, are tourism-related carbon emissions the responsibility of travellers or tourist destinations?

If responsibility lies with the travellers, then we should identify the countries that send the most tourists out into the world, and find ways to reduce the carbon footprint of their travel.

Read more: Can you be a sustainable tourist without giving up flying?

On the other hand, destination-based accounting can offer insights into tourism spots (like popular islands) that would benefit most from technology improvements and regulations for reducing the carbon footprint of tourism.

Tracking emissions under destination-based accounting over a specific period could help researchers and policymakers to answer questions about the success of incentive schemes and regulations, and to assess the speed of decarbonisation of tourism-related sectors.

Read more: Sustainable shopping: is it possible to fly sustainably?

So how do countries rank under the two accounting perspectives? The United States is responsible for the majority of tourism-related emissions under both perspectives – many people travel both from and to the US – followed by China, Germany and India.

But on a per-capita basis, the situation looks rather different. Small island destinations have the highest per-capita destination-based footprints. Maldives tops the list – 95% of the island’s tourism-related emissions come from international visitors.

Tourists are responsible for 30-80% of the national emissions of island economies. These findings bring up the question of the impact of tourism on small island states.

Islands as tourist destinations

Small islands depend on income from tourists . At the same time, these very tourists threaten the native biodiversity of the islands .

Small island states typically do not have the capacity to embrace technology improvements due to their small economies of scale and isolated locations.

global tourism carbon footprint

Can we lend a helping hand? Directing financial and technical support to these islands could potentially help with efforts to decarbonise their infrastructure. This support would be a reflection of the share of consumer responsibility, especially from developed nations that are “ net travellers ”.

Maldives , Mauritius and other small islands are actively exploring ways of building their renewable energy capacity to reduce the carbon intensity of local hotels, transport and recreational spots.

Creating awareness at multiple levels

We hope that our study provides a starting point for conversations between the public, companies and policymakers about sustainable tourism .

Read more: 'Sustainable tourism' is not working – here's how we can change that

Ultimately real change will come from implementing regulations and incentives together to encourage low-carbon operations. At a personal level, though, it’s worth looking at the carbon-cost of your flights , choosing to offset your emissions where possible and supporting tourism companies that aim to operate sustainably.

  • Carbon offsets
  • Carbon emissions
  • Global perspectives

global tourism carbon footprint

Director of Philanthropy (Indigenous)

global tourism carbon footprint

Executive Editor

global tourism carbon footprint

General Manager | La Trobe University, Sydney Campus

global tourism carbon footprint

Lecturer / Senior Lecturer - Business Law & Taxation

global tourism carbon footprint

Industrial Officer (Senior)

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Transport-related co2 emissions from the tourism sector.

Transport-related CO2 emissions from the tourism sector

share this content

  • Share this article on facebook
  • Share this article on twitter
  • Share this article on linkedin

Climate change | New report

New report: Transport-related CO 2 emissions from the tourism sector – Modelling results

UNWTO and ITF embarked on this research project with the aim of providing evidence of the CO 2 emissions from tourism and the implications of the different modes of transport.

Tourism has to define its own “high-ambition scenario”; a scenario where tourism would transform towards low emission and highly efficient operations.

The report provides insights into the evolution of tourism demand across the different global regions up to the year 2030. It also presents the expected transport-related CO 2  emissions of the tourism sector against the current ambition scenario for the decarbonization of transport and sets the basis to scale up climate action and ambition in the tourism sector. Some findings:

New Report CO2

  • Intra-regional (within the same region) international travel represents 80% of all international arrivals both in 2016 and 2030 and is predominantly done by air, followed by car. Inter-regional (across regions) travel therefore represents 20% of all travel and is almost exclusively (95%) done by air.
  • Transport-related emissions from international tourism are expected to grow 45% from 2016 to 2030 (from 458 Mt CO 2 to 665 Mt CO 2 ). Transport-related emissions from domestic tourism are expected to grow by 21% from 2016 to 2030 (from 913 Mt CO 2 to 1103 Mt CO 2 ).
  • Transport-related CO 2  emissions of the tourism sector are 22% of the whole emissions from transport and therefore enhanced cooperation with the transport sector is essential to support the implementation of a high-ambition scenario.

At the same time, tourism has to determine its own high-ambition scenario, beyond transport; a scenario where tourism would transform towards low emission and highly efficient operations.

Related Links

  • Download the report
  • Watch the Climate Action video
  • Climate modelling
  • Extreme weather
  • Health and Security
  • Temperature
  • China energy
  • Oil and gas
  • Other technologies
  • China Policy
  • International policy
  • Other national policy
  • Rest of world policy
  • UN climate talks
  • Country profiles
  • Guest posts
  • Infographics
  • Media analysis
  • State of the climate
  • Translations
  • Daily Brief
  • China Briefing
  • Comments Policy
  • Cookies Policy
  • Global emissions
  • Rest of world emissions
  • UK emissions
  • EU emissions
  • Global South Climate Database
  • Newsletters
  • COP21 Paris
  • COP22 Marrakech
  • COP24 Katowice
  • COP25 Madrid
  • COP26 Glasgow
  • COP27 Sharm el-Sheikh
  • COP28 Dubai
  • Privacy Policy
  • Attribution
  • Geoengineering
  • Food and farming
  • Plants and forests
  • Marine life
  • Ocean acidification
  • Ocean warming
  • Sea level rise
  • Human security
  • Public health
  • Public opinion
  • Risk and adaptation
  • Science communication
  • Carbon budgets
  • Climate sensitivity
  • GHGs and aerosols
  • Global temperature
  • Negative emissions
  • Rest of world temperature
  • Tipping points
  • UK temperature
  • Thank you for subscribing

Social Channels

Search archive.

global tourism carbon footprint

Receive a Daily or Weekly summary of the most important articles direct to your inbox, just enter your email below. By entering your email address you agree for your data to be handled in accordance with our Privacy Policy .

Passengers boarding a sea plane Maldives Indian Ocean. Credit: Sunpix Travel / Alamy Stock Photo. AKAWF0

  • Tourism responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, study finds

global tourism carbon footprint

Daisy Dunne

Worldwide tourism accounted for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions from 2009 to 2013, new research finds, making the sector a bigger polluter than the construction industry.

The study, which looks at the spending habits of travellers in 160 countries, shows that the impact of tourism on global emissions could be four times larger than previously thought.

The findings suggest that tourism could threaten the achievement of the goals of the Paris Agreement , a study author tells Carbon Brief.

However, the results may still be underestimating the total carbon footprint of tourism, another scientist tells Carbon Brief, because they do not consider the impact of non-CO2 emissions from the aviation industry.

Tourism’s footprint

The global tourism industry is rapidly expanding. Fuelled by falling air travel prices and a growing global middle class , the number of international holidaymakers is currently growing at a rate of 3-5% per year.

The new study, published in Nature Climate Change , explores how the recent growth of global tourism has impacted greenhouse gas emissions.

Tourists contribute to climate change in a number of ways – through travel by air, rail and road, for example, and by consuming goods and services, such as food, accommodation and souvenirs.

For the new analysis, the researchers considered all of these factors together in order to calculate tourism’s “global carbon footprint”, explains study author Dr Arunima Malik , a lecturer in sustainability from the University of Sydney . She tells Carbon Brief:

“Our analysis is comprehensive and, hence, takes into account all the upstream supply chains to quantify the impacts of tourist spending on food, clothing, transport and hospitality.”

global tourism carbon footprint

CO 2 equivalent: Greenhouse gases can be expressed in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent, or CO 2 eq. For a given amount, different greenhouse gases trap different amounts of heat in the atmosphere, a quantity known as the global warming potential. Carbon dioxide equivalent is a way of comparing emissions from all greenhouse gases, not just carbon dioxide.

The research finds that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s annual global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent.

This figure is four times higher than previous estimates and accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the research finds. The rise is largely driven by an increased demand for goods and services – rather than air travel, the research finds.

The chart below shows the carbon footprint of individual purchased commodities related to tourism in 2013.

However, it is important to note that the study did not consider the impact of aviation’s non-CO2 emissions , such as contrails, says Prof Stefan Gössling , a tourism researcher from Linnaeus University in Sweden, who was not involved in the study. This means the study may have underestimated the total emissions from aviation, he tells Carbon Brief:

“Notably, the non-CO2 warming effects from aviation, which, calculated for a given year, make aviation twice or three times as climate-relevant, are not even considered in this paper.”

Travellers and destinations

The new study draws on data taken from 160 countries. For each country, the researchers calculated the total amount of emissions caused by its own citizens going on holiday (“residence emissions”) and as a result of tourists visiting the country (“destination emissions”).

Looking specifically at resident emissions, the research finds that the US has the largest carbon footprint of any country, followed by China, Germany and India.

This is shown on the chart below, which displays the total carbon footprint in 2013 for international (blue) and domestic (yellow) holidays taken by each country’s residents.

global tourism carbon footprint

Total residence-based accounting (RBA) carbon footprint in CO2e for different countries in 2013 for international (blue) and domestic (yellow) holidays. Source: Lenzen et al. (2018)

The results show that domestic travel accounts for a large proportion of residence emissions in the US and China. This is likely to reflect the tendency of US and Chinese citizens to holiday within their own country, the researchers say.

Looking at destination emissions (the average carbon footprint per traveller once they arrive on their holiday), the researchers find that small islands, such as the Maldives, Mauritius and Cyprus, tend to have the highest international emissions.

This means that people choosing to holiday on these small islands are causing more emissions than those taking domestic trips. These emissions are likely to be related to a demand for private travel and luxurious goods and services, such as upmarket restaurants, hotels and shops, the researchers say.

The results are shown on the chart below, which displays the carbon footprints for destination countries per person in 2013 for international (blue) and domestic (yellow) holidays.

global tourism carbon footprint

Per capita destination-based accounting (DBA) carbon footprint in CO2e for different countries in 2013 for international (blue) and domestic (yellow) holidays. Source: Lenzen et al. (2018)

The results also suggest that the tourism carbon footprint of many countries, such as Germany and New Zealand, is primarily being driven by domestic trips, says study author Dr Ya-Yen Sun , a senior lecturer in tourism at the University of Queensland . She tells Carbon Brief:

“Total domestic travel consumption is much higher than the total inbound tourism consumption in Germany and New Zealand. This is quite common for most countries – domestic travel against international travel is probably at the ratio of 10:1.”

‘Shouldering’ carbon

The researchers also calculated the “net” carbon footprints of each country by taking the difference between residence and destination emissions. By doing this, the impacts of domestic travel are cancelled out and the resulting balance reflects only international travel.

The chart below shows the net carbon footprints for a range of countries in 2013, on a per person basis. On the chart, countries with a net footprint close to zero are not shown.

global tourism carbon footprint

Net balance between “resident” (RBA) and “destination” (DBA) emissions (CO2e) for different countries in 2013. Countries with a balance close to zero are omitted from the chart. Source: Lenzen et al. (2018)

The results show that people from Canada, the Netherlands and Denmark can be considered “net travellers” – meaning that their carbon footprint in other countries far exceeds that of other tourists in their own country.

In contrast, people from the Maldives, Seychelles and Mauritius are “net hosts” – meaning they “shoulder much higher footprints from their visitors than they exert elsewhere”, the paper notes.

First class travel?

The analysis also shows that richer nations tend to have larger tourism-related footprints than poorer ones.

About half of the total global footprint of tourism from 2009-13 was driven by travel between countries with a per person gross domestic product (GDP) of more than $25,000, the research shows. In the UK, the GDP per person is just under $40,000 (£29,000).

Projections suggest that world’s average GDP will increase from $10,750 per year in 2017 to $13,210 per year in 2022. As the world gets richer, its tourism carbon footprint is likely to grow larger, the research suggests.

Using models of financial growth, the researchers find that tourism’s carbon footprint could reach 5-6.5bn tonnes of COeq by 2025. This figure would account for roughly 12% of current greenhouse gas emissions.

Much of this growth could be driven by continued economic growth in less developed countries, Sun says:

“Travel activity is largely determined by income level and the total outbound number is also influenced by the sheer population size. For developing countries that embrace rapid economic development with a growing population, they are very likely to change from net destinations to net origins [for tourists].”

Ecotourism fallacy

One finding of the new research is that those travelling far to partake in “ ecotourism ” holidays may be causing more harm to the environment than they believe, Sun says:

“One main problem with ecotourism is that it cannot help to address emissions associated with long-haul travel, which is a key factor to the overall trip carbon footprint. For example, a UK visitor flying all the way to Indonesia to engage with ecotourism will produce more emissions than locals with regular domestic travel.

“Thus, one key step to be low-carbon travel is to fly less, choose destinations that are close to home and pay to offset carbon emissions.”

Decision-makers should also play a role in limiting the growth of global tourism, he adds, possibly by introducing a carbon tax on international travel:

“[Policymakers should] support carbon taxes or carbon-trading schemes to encourage the speed of technology development of airline industries and other transportation sectors.”

Paris in peril

The findings suggest that tourism could threaten the achievement of the Paris climate goals, the scientists say in their research paper:

“At least 15% of global tourism-related emissions are currently under no binding reduction target as emissions of international aviation and bunker shipping are excluded from the Paris Agreement. In addition, the US, the most significant source of tourism emissions, does not support the Agreement.”

Imposing stricter regulations on aviation and shipping could be key to tackling tourism-related emissions, Sun says:

“[Policymakers should] incorporate emissions of international aviation and bunker shipping in targets such as those most recently drawn up under the Paris Agreement.”

In 2016 , 161 countries agreed to “cap” their aviation CO2 emissions at 2020 levels. And, last month , countries agreed to cut shipping emissions by 50% in comparison with 2008 levels by 2050.

Update: This research paper was subject to a correction on May 7. Lenzen, M. et al. (2018) The carbon footprint of global tourism, Nature Climate Change, doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x

  • Tourism’s carbon footprint ‘four times larger’ than previously thought

Expert analysis direct to your inbox.

Get a round-up of all the important articles and papers selected by Carbon Brief by email. Find out more about our newsletters here .

May 8, 2018

Global Tourism Has a Bigger Share of Carbon Emissions Than Thought

U.S. has biggest footprint, both from foreign visitors and Americans traveling abroad

By Chelsea Harvey & E&E News

global tourism carbon footprint

Daniel Piraino Getty Images

International tourism accounts for 8 percent of all carbon emissions worldwide—about three times more than previously thought, according to a  study  released yesterday.

The study, published in  Nature Climate Change , estimates that global tourism—including transportation, accommodations, activities, food consumption, and all the energy and infrastructure required to accommodate visitors—produced about 4.5 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2013. Air travel accounts for one-fifth of these emissions.

And the United States has the biggest footprint of all. It’s responsible for about a billion metric tons of CO2 per year, both from visitors coming into the country and Americans traveling outside of it.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

By including a comprehensive assessment of all the factors contributing to tourism-related emissions, from transportation to souvenirs, the report presents “a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don’t miss any impacts,” senior study author Arunima Malik, of the University of Sydney in Australia, said in a statement.

The research used information from multiple databases cataloguing tourism-related expenditures, including data collected by dozens of individual nations as well as the United Nations’ World Tourism Organization. They analyzed the data in two ways: by assigning all tourism-related emissions to the travelers’ countries of origin, and by assigning all emissions to the travelers’ destination countries.

For the world’s highest emitters, including the United States, China and India, these values were similar no matter which accounting method was applied. But for other nations, particularly small island nations popular among travelers, including the footprint of international visitors makes a big difference. In some of these places, international tourism may account for as much as 80 percent of their national emissions.

This presents a difficult situation for such nations, the researchers wrote, noting that “these islands benefit substantially from the incomes from tourists, so their governments face a challenge of how to impose national mitigation strategies without reducing tourism income.”

In general, affluence has a major influence on global tourism emissions—as the researchers note, “wealthier people travel more.” The association is so strong, in fact, that for groups making any more than $40,000 per capita, a 10 percent increase in wealth results in a carbon footprint increase of 13 percent.

A transportation expert said the study comports with current estimates of aviation’s contribution to emissions. “Globally, aviation we think is responsible for between 2.5 and a little under 5 percent of anthropogenic climate change effects,” said Dan Rutherford, aviation and marine program director for the International Council on Clean Transportation.

In recent years, climate activists have pushed the International Civil Aviation Organization to introduce stricter emissions standards for aircraft. In the meantime, some airlines have also announced plans to begin or expand their use of biofuels on certain flights, or have begun offering carbon offset programs.

Still, projected increases in air travel underscore the need to reduce emissions further, Rutherford said. Some research suggests that the number of air passengers may double over the next 20 years.

Climate-minded travelers may make the choice to take trips closer to home, he suggested. But he also advocates for airlines or booking agencies providing more transparent information to consumers about the carbon intensity of different flights.

“There’s this question of, if you need to fly, how can you choose a less polluting flight?” he said. “We’d really like to see the industry step up.”

  • Skift Research
  • Airline Weekly
  • Skift Meetings
  • Daily Lodging Report

Sustainability in Travel 2021: Quantifying Tourism Emissions for Destinations

Sustainability in Travel 2021: Quantifying Tourism Emissions for Destinations

Executive summary, rapid growth of tourism in pre-pandemic times, the benefits and disadvantages of tourism , local backlash against tourism, sustainability in tourism, urgent need to focus on the environmental dimension of sustainability , the carbon footprint of tourism, understanding tourism emissions, carbon reporting in tourism, an attempt to quantify tourism emissions, skift research findings.

  • Game Plan - Change the Meaning of Success

Sustainability in Tourism in Light of COVID-19

Related reports.

  • State of Travel 2023: Travel in 250 Charts July 2023
  • Destination Marketing Outlook 2022 January 2022
  • EU Traveler Profile and Key Statistics: The Impact of COVID-19 January 2021
  • U.S. Travel Tracker December 2020: Further Slip January 2021

Report Overview

In the past few years, the problems surrounding tourism have intensified at major destinations around the world. The number of tourists was growing at a fast pace until 2019. In line with this, greenhouse gas emissions from tourism have also increased.

In 2019, tourism contributed about 11% of global greenhouse gas emissions. There are growing pressures on the tourism industry to reduce this. In this report we investigate the status of carbon reporting in the tourism industry. Skift research interviewed three senior industry professionals to understand the status quo of data collection and assimilation with respect to carbon emissions. 

Skift Research also attempted to quantify domestic and international tourism emissions for select destinations based on publicly available data. The results are startling, with tourism emissions contributing as much as 20-30% of total emissions in countries like Thailand, Switzerland, and United Arab Emirates.  

This, along with the fact that there is no standard and transparent carbon reporting being done, leaves us worried that the industry as a whole is lacking momentum to reduce carbon emissions.

What You'll Learn From This Report

  • The global carbon footprint of tourism
  • Carbon emissions attributable to different parts of the tourism value chain
  • The status of carbon reporting in the tourism industry
  • Composition of direct and indirect emissions
  • Tourism emissions of 25 countries
  • How much CO2 domestic and international tourists emit as compared to an average inhabitant

Executives Interviewed

  • Ayako Ezaki, Managing Partner, TrainingAid
  • Jeremy Sampson, CEO, Travel Foundation UK
  • Ya-Yen Sun, Senior Lecturer - Sustainability at The University of Queensland, Australia

COVID-19 brought the global travel and tourism industry to a standstill. Governments across the world announced lockdowns, travel restrictions and border closures to prevent the spread of the virus. According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO),  96% of global tourist destinations  were impacted by travel restrictions and lockdown measures in 2020. 

However, the travel and tourism industry is resilient to demand and supply shocks, as evidenced in the past when the industry was rattled by 9/11 (2001), the SARS outbreak (2002), and the Global Financial Crisis (2008). 

Recovery has started in earnest in many parts of the world now, but as mentioned in Skift Research’s Global Travel Outlook 2021 , full recovery is expected to be slow, depending on the rate at which the virus is contained globally, it is expected to recover between 2023 or 2024. 

This report is set in the pre-pandemic timeframe (when the travel and tourism industry was growing at a fast pace) with a forward-looking vision. We discuss the subject of sustainability in tourism presupposing that this will become a crucial factor when the industry recovers from the pandemic. 

Through this report we highlight the fact that to date there is no standard guideline for countries to report emissions from tourism and that the focus has only been on measuring the economic impact of tourism. 

Furthermore, to calculate the on-shore tourism emissions – emissions from tourists once they are in the destination without including the intercity or intercountry transport emissions, we use the per capita emissions of an average inhabitant in the destination along with other tourism related data, and relevant macroeconomic indicators, to come up with a ‘Tourist Emission Factor’, which signifies the degree to which tourist emissions are higher or lower than inhabitant emissions.

We found that in absolute terms, countries with significant domestic tourism, for example, China, U.S. and India have high CO 2 emissions from tourism. In addition, international tourists visiting emerging economies emit more than the inhabitants on a per capita basis, while the opposite trend is seen in advanced economies. An international tourist visiting India tends to emit 5 times more CO 2 as compared to an average inhabitant while an international tourist visiting the U.S. emits the same as the inhabitant.

Overall, our analysis highlights that there is an urgent need for a tourism carbon inventory at a country level so that areas for improvement can be identified and all stakeholders can efficiently work towards the common goal of decarbonizing the sector. The report also brings out the fact that there is no one-size-fits-all approach to reduce emissions in tourism. Every country has its own unique set of characteristics and should strategize accordingly. 

The past few decades have witnessed a rapid increase in the number of tourists globally. Pre COVID-19, international tourist arrivals had reached 1.5 billion in 2019, up from 0.7 billion in 2000; an increase of more than 100%.

Through the pandemic, international arrivals plummeted down by 73% to 0.4 billion in 2020. UNWTO predicts an optimistic  65% increase in international arrivals for 2021 compared to the historic lows of 2020. UNWTO expects a full recovery by 2023 or 2024. 

Exhibit 1: International tourist arrivals grew grew rapidly before COVID-19

global tourism carbon footprint

Up to 2019, the industry dynamics turned Tourism into a key driver for socio-economic progress in nations worldwide. During 2010-2019, growth in international tourist arrivals outpaced the global economy . In 2019, international arrivals grew by 4% while global GDP increased by 3%. 

Once the industry recovers from the pandemic, expectedly by 2024, experts expect the growth pace to reach 2019 level or even surpass it. 

Until 2019, the massive increase in tourist numbers can be attributed to robust global economic growth, technological advances in the industry, new business models, affordable travel costs, visa facilitation, and a growing middle class in emerging economies. 

Economic development in emerging economies has given a major push to travel and tourism. International arrivals in emerging economies accounted for approximately 50% of the total international arrivals in 2019. 

As compared to 2018, international arrivals in advanced economies increased by 2% in 2019 while international arrivals in emerging economies increased by 6% over the same period. Emerging economies, in fact, are crawling up to become top source markets for the developed economies.

International travel is, of course, only one aspect of tourism. In many countries, domestic tourism outweighs international tourism in terms of volume and revenue generated. In 2019, domestic travel spend represented 75% of the total tourism spend globally. 

In line with the growth in the number of tourists, expenditure on domestic and international tourism also grew rapidly. Over 2009-2019, both domestic and international tourism expenditure increased at an average of 5% annually.

Exhibit 2: Tourism expenditure increased from 2009–2019 

global tourism carbon footprint

Undoubtedly, tourism can provide many benefits. It is a driver of economic growth and has stimulated investment in destinations leading to their transformative development.

World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) reports that the Travel & Tourism sector contributed 10.4% (USD 9,170 billion) to global GDP in 2019. 

According to UNWTO, tourism as an industry is helping the redistribution of wealth across countries. During 1998-2018, the number of destinations earning USD 1 billion or more in international tourism increased 2x.  

Exhibit 3: Tourism has promoted redistribution of wealth across countries

global tourism carbon footprint

In addition, tourism is a major source of employment. Prior to the pandemic, travel & tourism (including its direct, indirect and induced impacts) accounted for 1 in 4 of all new jobs created across the world. In 2019, tourism generated 334 million jobs , which is approximately 11% of all jobs. 

Given the economic and social upside of tourism and the rapid increase in the number of tourists, a flourishing industry is of paramount importance to nations worldwide. However, even with these benefits, tourism can also be a source of problems, especially if it is not managed well. 

Tourism is highly carbon intensive and is a growing contributor to climate change, with CO 2 emissions being mainly generated through transport and the operation of tourism facilities such as hotels and similar establishments. We will elaborate on this point later in the report. 

Pollution of land and water from poor treatment of waste by tourism businesses, and from the activities of tourists, can be a problem in some areas. Maya Bay in Thailand is a case-in-point where pollution from litter and boats has destroyed more than 80% of the coral around the area.

Tourism can put pressure on natural resources in destinations and encourages over-consumption. This is particularly damaging in spots where resources like food and water are already scarce. Research shows that tourists in hotels typically use three to eight times more water than the local population.

Tourism tends to be concentrated in only a few cities in most of the countries. The main sights are overrun by tourists making local people feel that their city has been taken over. This has been the common theme of most of the protests in the EU region in recent years. 

For example, The Netherlands Board of Tourism & Conventions (NBTC) forecasts show that coastal areas can expect double the number of international visitors by 2030 if nothing is done. The growth in the rest of the country is expected to remain relatively low. 

Tourism development leads to rises in real estate demand which dramatically increase building costs and land values. This often means that local people will be forced to move away from the area where tourism is located.  

A case-in-point is Venice , where 50,000 people reside today compared to 150,000 in the 1970s. The population in the lagoon city is shrinking by 1,000 each year, half of which can be attributed to  soaring housing costs and a lack of job opportunities.

Tourism can be a vulnerable and unstable source of income, as it is often very sensitive to actual or perceived changes in the environmental and social conditions of destinations. The most relevant example is the impact of COVID-19 on the tourism industry. WTTC reported that nearly 62 million jobs were lost in 2020, representing a drop of 19% as compared to 2019. 

In the past few years, the problems surrounding tourism have intensified at major destinations around the world. These problems have now become tangible enough for local communities to protest against and governments to act on. 

The Agoda Sustainable Travel Trends Survey launched in June 2021 revealed that travellers globally have listed overtourism, pollution of beaches and waterways, deforestation and energy inefficiencies as their main concerns of the impact of tourism on the environment.

The timeline below shows some key events that have highlighted the dark side of tourism. 

Exhibit 4: The disadvantages of tourism have intensified in the past few years

global tourism carbon footprint

One positive side of the pandemic is, , when tourist numbers declined rapidly, more organizations started to see how the disappearance of tourists quickly improved local ecosystems and began to put a more sustainable return of tourism on agenda. 

Tourism Declares Climate Emergency (TDCE) is an initiative started in 2019 that supports tourism businesses, organizations, and individuals in declaring a climate emergency and taking action to reduce their carbon emissions. Ayako Ezaki, Managing Partner, Training Aid, told Skift Research that during the past one year, the TDCE initiative experienced a rise in travel organizations’ participation. At present, TDCE has engaged 279 tourism organizations who have committed to publishing a Climate Action Plan within 12 months. 

Ayako also mentioned that within the last 12 months, Global Sustainable Tourism Council  (GSTC), which develops criteria and global standards for sustainable travel and tourism as well as provides international accreditation for sustainable tourism certification bodies, has witnessed an increase in Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) becoming its members. 

Continued growth in tourism seems inevitable, however, at the same time all of the negative aspects discussed above underline the need for tourism to be carefully planned and managed across the value chain, for it to grow sustainably. 

Sustainable tourism, as defined by UNWTO , is one that establishes a harmonic balance between the environmental, economic and socio-cultural aspects of tourism development. It attempts to minimize the negative impact on the environment and local culture, so that it will be available for future generations, while contributing to generating income, employment, and the conservation of local ecosystems.

The dependency of tourism on the health of the destination makes it all the more important for the industry to proliferate cohesively. 

Although focusing on all aspects of sustainability is crucial, at present, focusing on the environmental dimension is pertinent. 

Each destination has a different set of characteristics and hence, rapid growth of tourism impacts different destinations differently. A study by Paul Peeters, Breda University of Applied Sciences,  conducted in 2018, examined 41 destinations to determine the extent of 18 potential impacts of tourism. 

Exhibit 5: Environmental impact of tourism requires immediate attention

global tourism carbon footprint

Perhaps unsurprisingly, environmental impacts were those most often identified as being present in rural and coastal destinations, while socio-cultural impacts were most common in urban destinations. 

Congestion associated with infrastructure, and overcrowding at attractions (both falling in the category of environmental impacts), were the only impacts occurring across the four different destination types, demonstrating that this is a common issue for destinations under pressure. 

Moreover, according to the Global Footprint Network , the window of opportunity to avoid the worst effects of rising temperatures is closing. The date of Earth Overshoot Day, the date when humanity’s demand for ecological resources and services in a given year exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year, has moved up two months over the past 20 years, reaching 29 July 2021, the earliest date ever. 

The tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate change and at the same time contributes to the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). If the negative impact of tourism on the environment is not fixed, it will not only impact the success of the tourism industry but threaten human survival fundamentally. 

Tourism is often assumed to be a ‘ low Impact and non-consumptive development option ’ which has made countries invest in rapid and large-scale tourism development projects.

As global economic development progressed in the past, especially among high-income countries and regions experiencing rapid economic growth, consumers’ demand for travel has grown much faster than their consumption of other products and services. Driven by the desire for exotic travel experiences and an increasing reliance on aviation and luxury amenities, affluence has turned tourism into a carbon-intensive consumption category. 

A research study published in May 2018, in the journal Nature Climate Change, suggests that between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 gigatons CO 2 e (CO 2 e includes CO 2 , as well as the other predominant GHGs which have warming potential), accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions , making the sector a bigger polluter than the construction industry. 

In addition, the study found that from an economic-environmental perspective, tourism bears a very high environmental cost to destinations. A dollar of tourism earnings produces a carbon footprint 25% higher than emissions produced through a dollar of earnings across all other sectors. This means that attracting more tourists bears a higher opportunity cost to the environment than developing other potential sectors.

The main driver for the growth of global tourism carbon footprint is primarily due to a strong increase in tourism consumption, at an annual 7% during the study period, which outpaced all carbon intensity reductions through technology development (-2.7% annually). Since, the number of tourists has continued to increase between 2013–2019, with limited decarbonization of tourism operations, the carbon footprint of tourism would have increased further.  

If we extrapolate the results of the Nature Climate Change study and align it against the global GHG emissions data, we can estimate that tourism would have accounted for approximately 11% of the global GHG emissions in 2019, which translates into a 38% increase in actual terms. 

Exhibit 6: Tourism emissions have grown in line with international tourist arrivals

global tourism carbon footprint

Clearly, tourism is not ‘smoke-free’, but it is hard to measure and account for all emissions,  as the industry is highly fragmented with multiple stakeholders involved. 

Tourism emissions include the carbon emitted directly during tourism activities (for example, combustion of fuel in the mode of transport used to reach the destination, use of resources in hotels) as well as the carbon embodied indirectly in the commodities purchased by tourists (for example, food and shopping). 

The image below shows the difference between direct and indirect emissions from tourist activities in an elementary way. 

Exhibit 7: The difference between direct and indirect tourism emissions

global tourism carbon footprint

The tourism carbon footprint  should be evaluated using methods that cover both the direct and indirect emissions of tourism-related goods and services.

The Nature Climate Change’s research study is the first to assess the entire life-cycle of the tourist and takes into account all the supply chain emissions from food, clothing, transport, hospitality and other industries included in the tourist value chain. According to the report, transport and shopping are the most significant contributors in the tourism value chain. The pie chart below shows the different activities that contribute to tourism’s total carbon footprint. 

Exhibit 8: Transport and retail contribute to majority of global tourism emissions

global tourism carbon footprint

Drilling down further, amongst the modes of transport, air and road are the highest emitters. Also, all food related categories (agriculture, food & beverage) combined account for 18% of the emissions from tourism. 

Each country has a different mix of indirect and direct emissions depending on the level of tourist activity, the emission intensity of various tourism related activities, availability of modes of transport & entertainment options and tourist preferences in the country.  

To put this in perspective, below is the split of direct and indirect emissions from tourism in Taiwan shared by Ya-Yen Sun, Senior Lecturer teaching Sustainability at The University of Queensland, Australia, who is also the author of the Nature Climate Change research we have discussed in above sections, from her recent study , during a discussion with Skift Research. 

For land and air transportation, which are energy intensive, the CO 2 e is mainly emitted in the direct effect stage (>60%). On the other hand, the core tourism consumption, including food & beverages, entertainment, and accommodation emit half their carbon emissions during the direct effect stage. 

Travel service and car rental services are energy efficient, supporting fewer carbon emissions per dollar sales at the front end. Thus, in comparison, their indirect and imported products lead to a larger proportion of GHG (>90%). This provides a good example as to why tourism consumption is not as clean as it is generally perceived to be.

Exhibit 9: Direct and indirect emission mix

global tourism carbon footprint

An important – in fact necessary and fundamental – requirement to reduce the carbon footprint of tourism, lies in the capability to measure greenhouse gas emissions in a consistent and transparent manner so that areas for improvement can be identified and all stakeholders can efficiently work towards the common goal of decarbonizing the sector. 

At the same time, a common understanding of emission levels helps to determine which stage of the fight against climate change we are in, as well as establish the right level of commitment and goals for each player.

However, The World Travel and Tourism Council notes that the travel and tourism sector lags behind in environmental reporting compared with other sectors and remains somewhat silent on climate change issues. 

In fact, at least 15% of global tourism-related emissions are currently under no binding reduction target as emissions of international aviation and bunker shipping are excluded from the Paris Agreement , which is an international accord adopted by nearly every nation in 2015, committing to cut their climate pollution in an effort to limit the global temperature increase to 2°C above pre-industrial levels

Focus on Economic, not environmental, measurement

Jeremy Sampson, CEO, Travel Foundation, UK, during a discussion with Skift Research, noted: “Our industry has been focused on reporting economic viability for a really long time. It lacks understanding of the holistic impact of tourism on communities and the environment.”

In his recent report, The Invisible Burden of Tourism, Sampson describes that when a tourist travels to a destination there are costs associated with each activity he participates in. For example, the airline ticket cost includes airport taxes, the cost of the flight’s fuel, and the cost of recycling waste water. 

All these costs should be taken into account to define the holistic impact of tourism on a destination. Below is a summary of costs that are left unaccounted showing that GHG emissions from tourism related activities are typically unaccounted for in estimating the impact of tourism. 

Exhibit 10: GHG emissions from tourism are typically unaccounted for at a national level

global tourism carbon footprint

Another relevant example is the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) Framework, developed by UNWTO in 2008 to foster international comparability. It is a standard global statistical framework for the ‘economic’ measurement of tourism. There is no mention of any environmental or social factor in TSA accounts of destinations.

Ya-Yen Sun noted: “Basically, we know how much tourism contributes to a country’s GDP, but we do not know the quantum of emissions released because of tourism.” According to Sun, there are three inputs required to quantify carbon emissions at a destination level: Tourism expenditure, which is directly available from TSAs and is available for over 60 countries; Input-Output Tables specifying the economic linkages in the tourism value chain and are available for most countries; and energy data to convert expenditure data to emissions, available for most countries. 

According to Dr. Sun, the TSA framework is based on the input-output model and the parameters defined in TSA can easily be used to quantify carbon emissions for at least 60 destinations, which mostly include all top destinations. In fact, Sun thinks that it will prove to be a very cost effective method of calculating emissions at national level. It is difficult to understand why countries or global tourism organizations are not doing it already. 

Interestingly, when approached, global organizations like UNWTO and WTTC did not seem ‘interested’ in publishing emissions data at country level, Sun expressed. 

Destination Management without accounting for Carbon Emissions

Lately, destinations are shifting their focus from destination promotion to destination management, claiming to adopt a more sustainable approach to grow tourism. 

The destination management guidelines published by UNWTO and The European Commission , two of the global and credible organizations in the tourism sector, acknowledge the importance of reporting tourism emissions in limited capacity.  

The guidelines provide general sustainability principles but offer no detailed instructions on data collection and assimilation for calculating tourism’s carbon footprint. 

Sun noted that: “Currently there is no official guideline in publishing national tourism carbon emissions and I feel UNWTO should take leadership in this.”

The Industry is Evolving

Industry leaders believe that things are changing in the industry now. With rising traveller awareness and increasing media pressure, a growing number of travel and tourism companies are recognising the benefits of measuring and reporting GHG emissions. 

Jeremy Sampson from Travel Foundation mentioned that there is good intention amongst stakeholders, but the lack of knowledge makes it difficult to implement decarbonization measures.

In 2019, large mainstream companies approached Travel Foundation, driven by questions from consumers, especially from the younger generation, to request guidance on suitable sustainability frameworks and practices. 

Ya-Yen Sun, who works very closely with tourism boards of various countries, said that countries like New Zealand, Scotland and Norway have actively started quantifying emissions from tourism and tying their tourism strategy to it.  

In 2019, New Zealand became the first country to publish a continual account of tourism emissions. 

Need for Global Guidelines

There is a clear paucity of a centralised/global carbon reporting framework for tourism and given the complexities of the tourism value chain. Efforts are being made at individual level. 

However, time is of essence here. Global tourism organizations must collaborate with the tourism boards to come up with a standardized framework for carbon reporting to support sustainable tourism growth in the near future. 

Given the lack of standardized measurement of tourism emissions, Skift Research has attempted to quantify domestic and international tourism emissions for select countries based on publicly available data. 

Country Coverage

For the current version, we focus on tourism emissions from 25 countries, altogether accounting for approximately 80% of global travel and tourism GDP and government spending on travel and tourism service. 

global tourism carbon footprint

The analysis presented in this report includes both on-shore and off-shore components of tourism.  

On-Shore Emissions

The on-shore component includes emissions from tourists once they are in the destination. The intercity or intercountry transport emissions are not included. 

The emissions are calculated by correlating inhabitant emissions and tourist emissions. The inhabitant emissions are determined by dividing countries’ production-based emissions – that is, emissions produced within a country’s boundaries without accounting for how goods are traded across the world – by the population of the country. 

Inclusion of production-based emissions at a per capita level takes care of both direct and indirect emissions in the tourism value chain. Hence, this analysis is comprehensive to that end. 

The factor, by which the tourist emissions are higher or lower than inhabitant emissions, is referred to as the ‘Tourist Emission Factor’. Basically, 

global tourism carbon footprint

The Tourist Emission Factor is calculated using two approaches:

Income Approach

In the income approach it is assumed that the ratio of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita per day of a country and tourist spend per day, will be the ratio of inhabitant’s and tourist’s emissions. 

The factor is calculated separately for domestic and international tourists.  

global tourism carbon footprint

Expenditure Approach

In the expenditure approach it is assumed that the ratio of household expenditure per capita per day of a country and tourist spend per day, will be the ratio of inhabitant’s and tourist’s emissions. 

Household expenditure is the amount of final consumption expenditure made by resident households to meet their everyday needs, such as food, clothing, house rent, energy, transport, durable goods, health costs, leisure, and miscellaneous services.

global tourism carbon footprint

I-E Average Approach 

In theory, we believe that the expenditure approach is more appropriate as what locals consume and consequently emit is more closely in line with what tourists consume and emit, than their income. However, the caveat of using this approach is the fact that for advanced economies, household expenditure per capita is much lower than income per capita – in many cases close to a 1:2 ratio, and for emerging economies, expenditure per capita is often higher than income per capita. So when the expenditure approach is used to calculate the tourism emission factor,  the factor for international tourists becomes very high for economically developed countries, resulting in higher emissions attributable to tourism for those with high volumes of international tourists. Take Switzerland, for instance. The country’s income per capita is 2.6 times of household expenditure per capita and it has a very high number of international arrivals. Using the expenditure approach, the tourism emissions would account for 32% of the country’s total emissions.

To moderate the extreme results of the expenditure approach, we took an average of the tourism emission factors derived from the income and expenditure approach to calculate the on-shore emissions.  

It is important to note that some countries, innately, have high CO 2 emissions per capita which amplifies the tourist emissions on a per capita basis. For example, in per capita terms, oil-producing nations feature some of the highest destination-based footprints per capita because of the industry and service mix present in the country. To put this into perspective, an international tourist travelling to the UAE emits 3x more CO 2 in the country as opposed to the tourist travelling to India. Similarly, a domestic tourist in Saudi Arabia emits 2x more CO 2 than a domestic tourist in France (refer Exhibit 13).  

Once the emission factor is determined, on-shore emissions for the year are calculated as shown below:

global tourism carbon footprint

Off-Shore Emissions

As highlighted in the above sections, transport accounts for 49% of the emissions from tourism and is hence the biggest carbon emitter in the value chain. 

As shown in Exhibit 11, the modes of transport of air and car are estimated to have CO 2 emissions per passenger kilometer of similar magnitude. The same holds true for rail and ferry, but at a lower level. Other modes of road transport like bus and motorcycle have comparatively lower CO 2 emissions per passenger kilometer. 

The emission intensity cannot be considered as a proxy to the volume of emissions. Despite lower intensity road transport accounts for 75% of overall emissions from transport while aviation accounts for 12%. 

The CO 2 emissions factor of cars is expected to decrease as expedited uptake of vehicle electrification and fuel efficiency improvements continue while aircrafts’ average CO 2 emission factor is expected to surpass that of cars by 2030 owing to the lack of rapid technological advancement and complacency of the stakeholders (See our Sustainability in Travel 2021: Environmental Performance of the Six Largest Airlines report for our analysis of the airlines industry).

Exhibit 11: Emissions by mode of transport

global tourism carbon footprint

Since emissions from transport represent a huge chunk of tourism emissions, we have taken it into account under the off-shore emissions component to make our analysis holistic. Although, the inclusion is partial as only emissions from air transport are taken into account. Emissions from other modes of transport cannot be easily estimated using publicly available data. 

Total tourism emissions of a country are determined by adding the on-shore and off-shore emissions. To reiterate, the total tourism emissions calculated using this method do not include emissions from all modes of inter-city/inter-country transport. 

Timeframe and Sources

The timeframe for this analysis is 2019. Assumptions have been made for parameters for which 2019 data was not available. 

global tourism carbon footprint

Countries for which data was not available on the primary sources listed above, data from credible government websites has been taken into account. 

International tourists visiting emerging economies emit more than the inhabitants on a per capita basis while the opposite trend is seen in advanced economies

Average international tourist emission factor for countries with low GNI per capita/emerging economies is 3, meaning that international travelers to these countries emit more than three times as much as a local. The international emission factor is the highest in countries like Thailand, India, Indonesia and Philippines.

In such countries the GNI per capita and hence, the household expenditure per capita is much lower than the international tourist spend per day, translating into higher per capita international tourist emissions as compared to an average inhabitant’s emissions. The reverse happens in advanced economies like the U.S., Canada and France, where the international tourist emission factor is less than 1. 

For example, foreigners visiting countries like Thailand tend to spend lavishly on luxurious amenities, using more resources than an average inhabitant. The household expenditure per capita per day in Thailand is $13 while an international tourist spends around $206 in a day. 

In the U.S., the household expenditure per capita per day is $121 while an international tourist spends around $99 in a day. 

As per the stats provided by our data partner STR , out of the total number of hotels in the U.S., only 20% fall in the luxury, upper upscale and upscale categories while 40% of hotels in Thailand fall in this category. Considering this as a proxy to the tourist expenditure trend, it is clear that tourists prefer to spend more on luxury in cheaper countries like Thailand, and less in expensive countries like the U.S., justifying the difference in their emission factors. As discussed in our report Sustainability in Travel 2021: Emissions Benchmark of Six Global Hotel Companies , luxury hotels have higher emissions per room than midscale or economy hotels. 

Exhibit 12: Domestic and international tourist emission factor

global tourism carbon footprint

Domestic visitors in European countries seem to emit more than the inhabitants on a per capita basis

Domestic visitors in the United Kingdom and European countries like Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, and Switzerland seem to emit more than an average inhabitant. 

The common theme across these countries is that they have a high percentage of same-day visitors. Since the same-day visitors have not been accounted for in our study, the skewed domestic tourist numbers drive up the average domestic tourists daily spend and hence the emission factor. 

The domestic emission factor for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Philippines, and Turkey are also above average. 

Exhibit 13: Tourist emissions on per capita basis

global tourism carbon footprint

In absolute terms, countries with significant domestic tourism have high CO 2 emissions from tourism 

Overall, domestic emissions account for 70% of the total tourist emissions (including both on-shore and off-shore emissions) for the selected 25 countries. 

China tops the carbon footprint ranking, followed by the U.S., India, and Germany in terms of absolute emissions, primarily because they have a very large domestic travel market. 

Exhibit 14: Domestic and international tourist emissions

global tourism carbon footprint

Off-shore emission contribution for home countries of big aviation hubs is substantial 

Off-shore emissions for countries like the UAE, the Netherlands, France, the U.S., and Canada, which are big tourist markets but also home to major aviation hubs, contribute approximately 40% of total emissions from tourism. 

It is important to mention here that this analysis does not take into account emissions from modes of transport other than aviation. Hence, the percentage contribution of aviation emissions might be lower than what we have presented. 

However, in absolute terms, aviation emissions are comparable with the total on-shore emissions of select countries. For example, as per our analysis, the total on-shore emissions in UAE, in 2019, were 29.9 million tonnes while the aviation emissions were 26.2 million tonnes, almost equal to the on-shore component.  

Exhibit 15: On-shore and off-shore tourist emissions

global tourism carbon footprint

The bigger goal is to reduce absolute emissions from tourism

We calculated the percentage of emissions attributable to tourism by dividing the absolute tourism emissions by the total emissions of the country and plotted it against the contribution of tourism to the country’s GDP to understand the relationship between the dependency of the country on tourism and tourism emissions. 

Significance of tourism as an industry is different for each country. The countries which derive a substantial amount of their GDP from tourism but have a low percentage of tourism emissions seem to be comparatively more sustainable as compared to its peers with respect to emissions from tourism.

The low and high groups are classified on the basis of the mid-point in the range of travel and tourism GDP contribution and emissions attributable to tourism. For example, tourism emissions percentage goes up to 30% and hence, countries below 15% are categorized as countries in which tourism emissions percentage is low. 

Quadrant 1 in Exhibit 16 consists of countries like Argentina, China, India, Turkey and Mexico, which are highly dependent on tourism (travel and tourism contribution to GDP>11%) but contribution of tourism emissions in these countries is comparatively low (<15% of country’s total emissions).  

Quadrant 2 consists of Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Philippines, UAE and Thailand. These countries are also highly dependent on tourism (travel and tourism contribution to GDP>11%) but contribution of tourism emissions in these countries is comparatively high (>15% of country’s total emissions).

Countries in quadrant 3 (Switzerland, UK, France and Norway) appear to be the most unsustainable as their dependence on tourism is low (travel and tourism contribution to GDP<11%) but tourism still ends up representing a big chunk of their overall emissions (>15% of country’s total emissions). 

The remaining nine countries in the analysis fall in quadrant 4 which is characterized by low dependence on tourism (travel and tourism contribution to GDP<11%) and a low percentage of emissions attributable to tourism (<15% of country’s total emissions)

The positioning of countries in the chart is dependent on a number of factors: absolute CO 2 emissions at a country level, tourism expenditure in the country, number of tourists, length of stay and macroeconomic factors like the GNI, GDP, and household expenditure of the inhabitants. 

To illustrate this further, Russia has the lowest percentage of tourism emissions (4.5%) despite being an oil-based economy (4 th highest emitter at a country level), which translates into high per capita inhabitant CO 2 emissions. But, a low number of tourists, low tourism expenditure, and a comparatively underdeveloped air transport system pushes down the tourist emissions. 

If Exhibit 16 is compared with Exhibit 14, it is easily noticeable that the biggest tourism emitters like the U.S., China, and India are a part of quadrant 4 since their overall economies are much larger and therefore tourism forms a smaller part of their GDP and overall emissions.  

Similarly, countries like Switzerland and Norway, the ones with the lowest absolute tourism emissions fall in quadrant 3, the danger zone as per the quadrant analysis. 

Hence, the goal of countries in quadrant 2 and 3 should not be to move southwards to quadrant 1 and 4, but for all countries to reduce their absolute emissions. 

Exhibit 16: Dependence on tourism and emissions attributable to tourism

global tourism carbon footprint

Game Plan – Change the Meaning of Success

The current emission rate for tourism will not slow down by default. The implications of carbon emissions are apparent and concerted action is required from all stakeholders to reduce the carbon footprint of tourism at a faster pace. 

Establish national tourism carbon footprint inventory

As already highlighted, the first step to reduce the carbon footprint of tourism is to have access to tourism’s carbon footprint inventory in order to identify the emission hotspots in the value chain. 

Link Every Tourism Strategy with Emissions

The next step should be for the governments to link every tourism strategy with emission data. At present, governments’ mindset is primarily driven by economic outcomes. 

Essentially, governments frame their tourism policies to increase tourism expenditure by gauging the impact of tourism on country’s GDP. 

Undoubtedly, countries want to earn from tourism and the number of tourists will only increase but once we have the emissions inventory in place, countries can: 1) Set emission reduction goals for tourism businesses; 2) Assess the level of extra carbon emissions which are required to be compensated through various carbon offsetting schemes. 

For example, the Australian government plans to increase arrivals by 6% per year for the next 15 years (Although as per our analysis Australia ranks amongst top 10 in terms of absolute tourism emissions. Refer Exhibit 14). Once a national account of emissions from tourism is available, the government can calculate the carbon emissions that the increased tourism will contribute and set targets for stakeholders to reduce and offset emissions. 

Similarly, visitor profiling can be done to promote tourism in short-haul source markets and reduce dependency on long-haul markets. 

Hence, the performance indicators of tourism’s growth can be tweaked and redefined to include the carbon footprint dimension. 

Close the Attitude-Behavior Gap 

We have highlighted in the report that there is good intent in travelers, but, with lack of relevant information, guidelines and sustainable options, it becomes difficult for travelers to make environmentally-friendly choices. 

The change has to be driven by the governments and businesses (a top-down approach) to make sustainable options available to the tourists and align their intent with action. 

COVID-19 pandemic led to a 7% reduction of GHG emissions globally in 2020. However, the rebound in emissions seen in the aftermath of previous global crises suggests that the way countries stimulate their economies after Covid-19 lockdowns will play a key role in future emissions.

Corinne Le Quere , a Royal Society research professor of climate change science at the  University of East Anglia , during a recent media interaction noted that: “The huge impact of Covid-19 lockdowns means a rebound in global emissions is very likely, but what is more difficult to say is exactly what the size of the rebound will be in 2021 – whether it will come back to the 2019 level or perhaps even higher.” 

Before COVID-19, sustainability in tourism as a subject was gaining momentum and becoming a high priority agenda for stakeholders with increasing media pressure and protests against the negative effects of tourism by the consumers. 

However, during COVID-19 and in the aftermath of it the focus of destinations has shifted from sustainability to survival. 

Case-in-point being China. China’s quick economic recovery from COVID-19 presented a narrow but vast opportunity to build an economy which is cleaner, fairer, and safer. Based on a questionnaire survey of 1,160 owners and managers of companies headquartered in 32 regions of China and covering 30 industries conducted in 2020, Chinese companies’ sustainability priorities have shifted towards the social dimension both during COVID-19 and into the post-pandemic phase, regardless of the type of ownership, company size, or market focus. 

As per the survey, all types of companies prioritize the need for economic sustainability in the post-pandemic phase and in relative terms the importance of the environmental dimension has been diminished. Hence, the potential for a post-pandemic environmental rebound effect in China is clear. 

Jeremy Sampson, CEO Travel Foundation, said: “Destinations are in a tough spot as they more than ever want to support their communities/businesses and bring back tourism, but at the same time focusing on long-term is important, and they should try and achieve the optimum balance between all three dimensions of sustainability.”

The change in traveler preferences, like the preference to travel to short-haul domestic destinations reachable by car, and stay at private rental properties instead of crowded hotels and resorts, might be able to aid environmental sustainability, but researchers believe that such trends will be short-lived. 

A number of countries are still struggling with the pandemic, and governments and businesses are strategizing suitable recovery plans. We are yet to see if the policies are biased towards economic recovery, or are well balanced and embrace the environmental dimension of sustainability.

Ya-Yen Sun noted that: “In the post-COVID world, long-haul travel is expected to decrease – that will help in reducing tourism emissions. But eventually, people will want to explore countries far away and we might again move towards mass tourism.”

 / 

Tourism Accounts for 8 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions

The global carbon footprint of tourism is almost four times larger than previously thought — accounting for 8 percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis of data from 160 countries published in the journal Nature Climate Change . The industry’s biggest emissions contributors are transport, shopping, and food.

From 2009 to 2013, global tourism-related emissions increased from 3.9 to 4.5 billion tons of CO2 annually. The United States topped the list for travel emissions, largely due to domestic flights, followed by China, Germany, and India. In small island nations like the Maldives, Mauritius, Cyprus, and the Seychelles, tourism accounted for 30 to 80 percent of national annual emissions.

“Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism – including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs – it’s a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don’t miss any impacts,” Arunima Malik , an environmental economist and co-author of the study, said in a statement.

Malik and her colleagues argue that the findings suggest tourism should be included or considered in international climate commitments, such as the Paris Agreement. They also suggest that nations looking to expand tourism to boost economic development need to consider the industry’s impact on their national emissions and climate targets.

“A pursuit of economic growth comes with a significant carbon burden, as tourism is significantly more carbon-intensive than other potential areas of economic development,” the study says . “This finding should be considered in future deliberations on national development strategies and policies.”

More From E360

In rush for lithium, miners turn to the oil fields of arkansas, food & agriculture, how a solar revolution in farming is depleting world’s groundwater, what will it take to save our cities from a scorching future, rain comes to the arctic, with a cascade of troubling changes, plastics reckoning: pvc is ubiquitous, but maybe not for long, how a legal loophole allows gas leaks to keep on flowing, flying green: the pursuit of carbon-neutral aviation revs up, as use of a.i. soars, so does the energy and water it requires, how parking reform is helping transform american cities, natural hydrogen: a potential clean energy source beneath our feet, biodiversity, how dna from the dead is helping boost species on the brink, conservation, rethinking monarchs: does the beloved butterfly need our help.

  • Share full article

Advertisement

Supported by

Travel Industry Takes Crucial First Step Toward Combating Climate Change

More than 300 travel companies, tourism boards and countries have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, the first step for a shared road map to cut carbon emissions.

global tourism carbon footprint

By Ceylan Yeginsu

The travel industry has reached a turning point.

As thousands of scientists, government officials and business leaders met in Glasgow over the past two weeks for the pivotal United Nations climate conference , hundreds of members of the trillion-dollar tourism industry came together and made the first commitment toward a shared road map to cut carbon emissions in half by 2030 and reach “net zero” by 2050.

More than 300 global travel stakeholders, including tour operators, tourism boards and hotel chains, have signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism, requiring them to submit a concrete and transparent plan within 12 months. While the details have yet to be put forward, the companies and countries that signed on, from Germany railway company Deutsche Bahn AG to the country of Panama, will be expected to disclose their carbon emissions and offer clear strategies for how to reduce them. The process is being spearheaded by the U.N. World Tourism Organization and the World Travel & Tourism Council, two industry bodies that have previously sparred on climate matters.

“This is undoubtedly the biggest climate commitment our industry has come together for,” said Jeremy Smith, the co-founder of Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency , an initiative that supports climate action and provided the framework for the Glasgow Declaration.

“Our initiative launched two years ago because the industry had no collective plan, and we did well getting over 400 tourism organizations on board without funding,” he said. “But the Glasgow Declaration builds on our work. It’s the coming together of major players in our sector and it’s owned by everyone who has signed it, establishing collective responsibility.”

The travel industry is a large contributor to global carbon emissions, with a footprint estimated between 8 and 11 percent of total greenhouse gases, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, or W.T.T.C . Aviation alone represents around 17 percent of total travel carbon emissions. Each year, a growing number of destinations and communities heavily dependent on tourism — countries like Thailand, India and Madagascar — are hit hard by the impacts of climate change, in the form of rising sea levels, drought, wildfires, deforestation and biodiversity loss.

The pandemic spotlighted the adverse impact of industry growth and overtourism on Venice, Bali and other popular destinations, forcing some places to take stock and pivot toward more sustainable and environmentally friendly business models. Yet with most operators and destinations reeling from the industry shutdown last year, it is unclear how many of those plans will be prioritized over the need for fast recovery.

“We need a cultural change and we need to move beyond the traditional growth-oriented mind-sets to see a more sustainable, responsible and climate-neutral tourism ecosystem,” said Patrick Child, deputy director general of environment at the European Commission.

global tourism carbon footprint

52 Places to Love in 2021

We asked readers to tell us about the spots that have delighted, inspired and comforted them in a dark year. Here, 52 of the more than 2,000 suggestions we received, to remind us that the world still awaits.

‘A lot of apathy’

The declaration has four main targets: measurement, requiring companies to disclose all travel- and tourism-related emissions; decarbonization, by setting targets aligned with climate science; regeneration, to restore and protect natural ecosystems; and collaboration, to ensure best practices are shared and financing is available to follow through.

A recent analysis by the W.T.T.C. of 250 travel businesses found that only 42 percent had publicly announced climate targets and many of them were not based on the latest science. The council last week published a road map for different industries within travel, providing concrete guidance on how to reach “net zero” targets by 2050.

“There has been a lot of apathy, with some people not quite sure about what they need to do and how to do it, or some thinking they are not significant enough, and that’s why it’s really important for larger organizations to show the way,” said Darrell Wade, the co-founder and chairman of Intrepid Travel , the only global tour company with a climate target verified by the Science Based Targets initiative , which promotes best practices in emissions reductions in line with climate science.

Joining Deutsche Bahn and Panama in signing the Glasgow Declaration are big companies like Accor, Skyscanner, The Travel Corporation and Iberostar Group , as well as countries that are already affected by climate change, including Norway and Barbados. Signatories hope that more destinations will participate in the coming weeks.

Throughout his experience in the Tourism Declares a Climate Emergency initiative, Mr. Smith found it easier to get smaller, more agile companies and smaller countries involved. When it came to larger companies, there were more barriers and obstacles, he said.

“When you reach a destination, or even a city, it becomes even harder because there are multiple different players with different interests at the scale of a country,” he said. “It takes time.”

Panama, one of only three carbon-negative countries in the world (meaning that it absorbs more carbon emissions than it emits), has taken a lead role in establishing initiatives for economic growth in tourism, which also benefit and preserve local communities and resources.

“Our main plan for our sustainable tourism market is to empower local communities, particularly Indigenous people, so that they can generate an income through tourism that allows them to preserve their ancestral way of life, allowing them to sustainably manage their natural resources like forests and coral reefs,” said Ivan Eskildsen, Panama’s tourism minister.

He pointed to an example of a trail that was built in a national park that was designed to involve local communities in the active management of the area. “Over 30 percent of our land and sea are preserved national parks, so it’s humanly impossible to supervise all these areas,” he said. “The community can benefit economically from these areas and will also be prone to stay and take care of it instead of only coming there for short-term income.”

Visit Scotland, that country’s national tourism organization, which helped draft the declaration, has also taken a lead role. The organization has reduced its own carbon emission by 74 percent since 2008, and more than 850 local businesses have been given green tourism awards for their sustainability efforts.

Challenges persist

While the Glasgow Declaration has garnered great momentum and established common objectives, challenges lie ahead, especially when it comes to setting a global standard for reporting emissions figures for such a wide range of sectors within the industry, from tour operators to destinations, and airlines to cruise ships.

Signatories are expected to hold each other accountable and set common standards throughout international supply chains. Once action plans have been submitted within the next year, a reporting framework will be necessary. Anyone who fails to submit a road map within that time frame will be removed from the declaration.

“It is really important to bring value chains together,” said Catherine Dolton, the chief sustainability officer at IHG Hotels and Resorts. “Hotel developers, hotel owners, investors, franchisees, as well as the operators, are all impacting sustainability at different stages of the hotel life cycle.”

Visibly absent from the list of signatories were members of the cruise industry. The sector made a separate pledge to pursue carbon-neutral cruising by 2050 and reduce emissions 40 percent by 2030 in an annual environmental report, published last week by the industry trade group, Cruise Line International Association. While the report makes detailed commitments to reducing the cruise industry’s carbon footprint using new technology and alternative fuels, it does not address other environmental issues such as discharge of waste.

“Despite technical advances and some surveillance programs, cruising remains a major source of air, water (fresh and marine) and land pollution affecting fragile habitats, areas and species, and a potential source of physical and mental human health risks,” according to a recent report by the Marine Pollution Bulletin Journal.

Though there was some disappointment about the limited participation of some industries in the pledge, the overall sentiment was one of optimism and a belief that the declaration would lead to real change and less “greenwashing,” a term used to describe companies that try to portray themselves as more environmentally minded than they actually are.

“I’ve long been quite pessimistic about travel and tourism’s approach toward climate change,” said Mr. Wade of Intrepid Travel, which recently published a tool kit, available online, to help travel businesses measure and reduce their carbon emissions. “But now I’m really very optimistic because there is broad-level support from the industry to actually reduce emissions, and it’s the first time I’ve seen real concrete commitments from industry and governments.”

Follow New York Times Travel on Instagram , Twitter and Facebook . And sign up for our weekly Travel Dispatch newsletter to receive expert tips on traveling smarter and inspiration for your next vacation. Dreaming up a future getaway or just armchair traveling? Check out our 52 Places list for 2021 .

Ceylan Yeginsu is a London-based reporter. She joined The Times in 2013, and was previously a correspondent in Turkey covering politics, the migrant crisis, the Kurdish conflict, and the rise of Islamic State extremism in Syria and the region. More about Ceylan Yeginsu

ScienceDaily

Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in world first

Comprehensive supply-chain analysis shows the true cost of our desire to travel.

For the first time, the world's tourism footprint has been quantified across the supply chain -- from flights to souvenirs -- and revealed as a significant and growing contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Small islands attract a disproportionate share of carbon emissions, considering their small populations, through international arrivals, while the United States is responsible for the majority of tourism-generated emissions overall.

The research -- led by world-leading Integrated Sustainability Analysis supply-chain research group at the University of Sydney -- found the global comprehensive tourism footprint of tourism-related greenhouse gas emissions is about four times greater than previous estimates, is growing faster than international trade and is already responsible for almost a tenth of global GHGs.

The researchers recommend financial and technical assistance could help share burdens such as global warming on winter sports, sea-level rise on low-lying islands and pollution impacts on exotic and vulnerable destinations.

A key recommendation: fly less and pay more, for example for carbon abatement.

A paper about the findings, 'The carbon footprint of global tourism', publishes today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change .

Corresponding author Dr Arunima Malik, from the School of Physics, said the complex research took a year and a half to complete and incorporated more than an estimated one billion supply chains and their impacts on the atmosphere.

"Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism -- including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs -- it's a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don't miss any impacts," Dr Malik said.

"This research fills a crucial gap identified by the World Tourism Organization and World Meteorological Organization to quantify, in a comprehensive manner, the world's tourism footprint."

Co-author Dr Ya-Yen Sun, from the University of Queensland's Business School and the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, said a re-think about tourism as 'low-impact' was crucial.

"Given that tourism is set to grow faster than many other economic sectors, the international community may consider its inclusion in the future in climate commitments, such as the Paris Accord, by tying international flights to specific nations," she said.

"Carbon taxes or carbon trading schemes -- in particular for aviation -- may be required to curtail unchecked future growth in tourism-related emissions."

Lead researcher from the University of Sydney, Professor Manfred Lenzen, said the study found air travel was the key contributor to tourism's footprint and that the carbon-intensive industry would comprise an increasingly significant proportion of global emissions as growing affluence and technological developments rendered luxury travel more affordable.

"We found the per-capita carbon footprint increases strongly with increased affluence and does not appear to satiate as incomes grow," Professor Lenzen said.

Previous research has quantified the carbon footprint of specific aspects of tourism operations such as hotel, events and transportation infrastructure; and in particular countries or regions.

This new study included 189 individual countries and all upstream supply chains.

The US tops the carbon footprint ranking, followed by China, Germany and India. The majority of these carbon footprints are caused by domestic travel; business travel could not be distinguished from tourism.

In countries such as the Maldives, Mauritius, Cyprus and the Seychelles, international tourism represents between 30 percent and 80 percent of national emissions.

The paper notes international arrivals and tourism receipts have been growing at an annual three percent to five percent -- outpacing the growth of international trade.

The study found tourism is forecast to grow at an annual four percent -- outpacing many other economic sectors.

Between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 Gt CO2-e -- four times more than previous estimates -- accounting for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors.

  • Energy Policy
  • Telecommunications
  • Global Warming
  • Environmental Policy
  • Resource Shortage
  • Environmental Policies
  • Travel and Recreation
  • Climate change mitigation
  • United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
  • Automobile emissions control
  • Consensus of scientists regarding global warming
  • Adventure travel
  • Climate model
  • Sulfur hexafluoride
  • Global warming

Story Source:

Materials provided by University of Sydney . Note: Content may be edited for style and length.

Journal Reference :

  • Manfred Lenzen, Ya-Yen Sun, Futu Faturay, Yuan-Peng Ting, Arne Geschke, Arunima Malik. The carbon footprint of global tourism . Nature Climate Change , 2018; DOI: 10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x

Cite This Page :

  • How Molecular 'Handedness' Emerged in Biology
  • Cannabis: Heart Attack and Stroke Risk
  • Double Trouble at Chromosome Ends
  • Gamma Rhythm Stimulation for Alzheimer's?
  • How Human Ancestors Lost Their Tails
  • Placental Oxygen Levels and the Fetal Brain
  • Biomimetic Robots With Life-Like Movement
  • How Predatory Fish Coordinate Attacks: Colors
  • Eye Diseases and Gut Bacteria
  • Doomsday Glacier: Worrisome Retreat Since 1940s

The carbon footprint of global tourism

Author: lenzen, manfred, author: sun, ya-yen, author: faturay, futu, author: ting, yuan-peng, author: geschke, arne, author: malik, arunima.

Tourism contributes significantly to global gross domestic product, and is forecast to grow at an annual 4%, thus outpacing many other economic sectors. However, global carbon emissions related to tourism are currently not well quantified. Here, we quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 countries, and their carbon footprints under origin and destination accounting perspectives. We find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism’s global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCOe, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors. The majority of this footprint is exerted by and in high-income countries. The rapid increase in tourism demand is effectively outstripping the decarbonization of tourism-related technology. We project that, due to its high carbon intensity and continuing growth, tourism will constitute a growing part of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

chrome icon

The carbon footprint of global tourism

607  citations

293  citations

189  citations

186  citations

162  citations

1,316  citations

1,071  citations

924  citations

832  citations

View 3 reference excerpts

"The carbon footprint of global tour..." refers background in this paper

... j s DBA, 1), as well as for (3) production-based accounting = . ...

... 6), which is due to our inclusion of (1) food and shopping, (2) upstream supply chains that are relatively insignificant for air travel, and (3) non-CO2 GHG emissions, rendering food consumption in particular equally carbon-intensive. ...

... 2), (2) presenting an annual carbon footprint time series from 2009 to 2013, (3) analysing drivers of change, (4) providing details about carbon-intensive supply chains, and (5) comparing two accounting perspectives. ...

771  citations

Related Papers (5)

Ask Copilot

Related papers

Contributing institutions

Related topics

EurekAlert! Science News

  • News Releases

Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in world first

Comprehensive supply-chain analysis shows the true cost of our desire to travel

University of Sydney

Major Bilateral Embodied Carbon Movements -- Map

image: In 2013, international travel caused a carbon footprint of about 1 Gt CO2-e, or 23 percent of the global carbon footprint of tourism. Arrows point in the direction of embodied carbon flow, which -- in accordance with the literature -- is the direction of commodity trade, and which is opposite to the movement of people. Red arrows: bilateral international movements belonging to the top 10 percent of the total 1 Gt CO2-e; yellow arrows: top 10-30 percent; orange arrows 30-50 percent; blue arrows: remainder. view more 

Credit: University of Sydney

For the first time, the world's tourism footprint has been quantified across the supply chain - from flights to souvenirs - and revealed as a significant and growing contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Small islands attract a disproportionate share of carbon emissions, considering their small populations, through international arrivals, while the United States is responsible for the majority of tourism-generated emissions overall.

The research - led by world-leading Integrated Sustainability Analysis supply-chain research group at the University of Sydney - found the global comprehensive tourism footprint of tourism-related greenhouse gas emissions is about four times greater than previous estimates, is growing faster than international trade and is already responsible for almost a tenth of global GHGs.

The researchers recommend financial and technical assistance could help share burdens such as global warming on winter sports, sea-level rise on low-lying islands and pollution impacts on exotic and vulnerable destinations.

A key recommendation: fly less and pay more, for example for carbon abatement.

A paper about the findings, 'The carbon footprint of global tourism', publishes today in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change .

Corresponding author Dr Arunima Malik, from the School of Physics, said the complex research took a year and a half to complete and incorporated more than an estimated one billion supply chains and their impacts on the atmosphere.

"Our analysis is a world-first look at the true cost of tourism - including consumables such as food from eating out and souvenirs - it's a complete life-cycle assessment of global tourism, ensuring we don't miss any impacts," Dr Malik said.

"This research fills a crucial gap identified by the World Tourism Organization and World Meteorological Organization to quantify, in a comprehensive manner, the world's tourism footprint."

Co-author Dr Ya-Yen Sun, from the University of Queensland's Business School and the National Cheng Kung University, Taiwan, said a re-think about tourism as 'low-impact' was crucial.

"Given that tourism is set to grow faster than many other economic sectors, the international community may consider its inclusion in the future in climate commitments, such as the Paris Accord, by tying international flights to specific nations," she said.

"Carbon taxes or carbon trading schemes - in particular for aviation - may be required to curtail unchecked future growth in tourism-related emissions."

Lead researcher from the University of Sydney, Professor Manfred Lenzen, said the study found air travel was the key contributor to tourism's footprint and that the carbon-intensive industry would comprise an increasingly significant proportion of global emissions as growing affluence and technological developments rendered luxury travel more affordable.

"We found the per-capita carbon footprint increases strongly with increased affluence and does not appear to satiate as incomes grow," Professor Lenzen said.

NOTES TO EDITORS

Previous research has quantified the carbon footprint of specific aspects of tourism operations such as hotel, events and transportation infrastructure; and in particular countries or regions.

This new study included 189 individual countries and all upstream supply chains.

The US tops the carbon footprint ranking, followed by China, Germany and India. The majority of these carbon footprints are caused by domestic travel; business travel could not be distinguished from tourism.

In countries such as the Maldives, Mauritius, Cyprus and the Seychelles, international tourism represents between 30 percent and 80 percent of national emissions.

The paper notes international arrivals and tourism receipts have been growing at an annual three percent to five percent - outpacing the growth of international trade.

The study found tourism is forecast to grow at an annual four percent - outpacing many other economic sectors.

Between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 Gt CO2-e - four times more than previous estimates - accounting for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors.

Nature Climate Change

10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x

Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.

Additional Multimedia

Norfolk Island

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

  • We're Hiring!
  • Help Center

paper cover thumbnail

What are Carbon Footprint and Carbon Footprint Calculators?

Profile image of Selenay Aytac

Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship

Carbon Footprint (CF) calculations have recently drawn considerable attention in order to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Adapting to environmental consequences of climate change will require collaborative action, which involves every stakeholder, particularly libraries. CF calculators are digital tools for revealing and reducing CF. This paper introduces the concepts of “carbon footprint” and “carbon footprint calculator” by reviewing relevant library and information science literature.

Related Papers

Carbon Management

global tourism carbon footprint

Online Information Review

gobinda chowdhury

PurposeThe study aims to determine the environmental impact of printed content in libraries and thus to find out how a digital information service can help libraries and institutions play a key role in helping the environment.Design/methodology/approachData were collected and analysed through a combination of environment scan and document analysis, and some mathematical calculations. Comparative data for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from printed books and journals in certain countries, and some specific university libraries in Australia and New Zealand are presented. A lifecycle analysis approach is used to identify various factors that are responsible for GHG emissions for printed as well as digital information resources.FindingsThe study found that dematerialisation, i.e. the replacement of printed content with digital information services, can help libraries and institutions to reduce their impact on the environment. However it is also noted that further research is needed to d...

E3S Web of Conferences

Danilo Granato

This study identifies key challenges to measure the carbon footprint (CF) over the whole life cycle of buildings in Chile, although its findings are also applicable to other countries. This paper presents four of the said challenges that emerge from the analysis of certification programs, design guides, databases, CF/LCA calculators, standards, and Measurement, Reporting and Verification (MRV) programs worldwide. The four challenges are: (i) a sustainable governance for the carbon footprint system which ensures CF quality, enables regular updates of the data, and has guaranteed funding, (ii) adoption of the system by industry, (iii) standardization of reporting, and (iv) standardization of measurements over the full life cycle. An MRV appears as the best option to coordinate multiple actors and data needs; however, it requires a sustainable governance model as well as widespread adoption. Such an MRV would need a common reporting system. However, comparability may be compromised due...

Selenay Aytac

This paper introduces the concept of “net zero energy,” presents some historical milestones through the idea of sustainability by reviewing the relevant literature, and highlights some case studies to strengthen the viewpoints on moving towards a sustainable future with net zero energy buildings. Many net zero energy buildings are being developed around the world, as well as in the United States’ communities, college campuses, and individual buildings. Libraries have also been supporting this initiative. For the next library renovation, librarians are encouraged to continue to leverage the net zero energy concept by developing net zero energy library buildings that produce their own renewable energy to meet the consumed energy demand, to safeguard a budget and energy-sustainable future.

Sustainability

Mario Burgui

This paper presents a carbon footprint (CF) observatory recently developed within our research group. It aims to introduce a new concept of CF accountability, which focused not just on measuring CF, but also on making users reflect about and eventually change their lifestyles to reduce their personal emissions. With this conception, the CO2web observatory includes not only a CF calculator, but also the CF of different alternative consumption scenarios. Therefore, the user may be more aware of the impact of different personal decisions, such as emissions linked to different food, cars, home appliances or pets. In addition, the CF calculator provides quantitative comparisons of the emissions linked to current habits of users with those of similar cohorts, along with specific advices for those consumption sectors where emissions are significantly higher than their cohort’s average.

European Journal of Tourism Research

james hanrahan

For tourism to be considered sustainable, the industry needs to be transparent in measuring, monitoring and reporting all emissions to actively contribute to the decarbonisation of the economy. The purpose of this study was to identify to what level tourism decarbonisation has been discussed, assessed, and planned for globally. For this study, a content analysis of national tourism plans was implemented to identify if the carbon footprint of tourism has been assessed, establish a unified approach to measure tourism emissions and determine what level of tourism decarbonisation strategies are currently in place. The findings in this study identified that the carbon footprint of tourism has not been assessed globally, lacks serious discussion and planning for tourism decarbonisation. Crucially, baseline data for tourism emissions are not available, as a result, tourism policymakers cannot monitor and manage the level of decarbonisation in tourism. Furthermore, a unified approach to mea...

Edurne Loyarte

Calculating the carbon footprint is fundamental to understand how an organization’s activities impact global sustainability. The main challenge is how to calculate it when environmental aspects are intangible assets. The present paper investigates in what ways the environmental effects of 13 aspects in relation with R&D activities in an applied research center could contribute to sustainable development. For this purpose, we described methodology to routinely measure greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and calculate the carbon footprint (CF) of all research activities related to intangible assets (R&D projects, researchers’ knowledge and software libraries) with real-time data being provided. Selection of conversion factors to express all GHG emissions are described, in particular those related to air travel on account of its greatest contribution to CF. In addition, these data were used as a factor in assessing the environmental impact of the center, under ISO 14001. As a result, our ce...

Journal of Tourism and Hospitality Management David Publishing

Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology

Giovanni Mummolo

The concept of smart city is being receiving wide consideration as a guiding principle of European public policy. Providing “smartness” to modern society is emerging as a strategy to coordinate sets of interventions aiming at make city more sustainable. Following the principle that what is not measured cannot be managed, the authors propose a Carbon Footprint Calculator (CFC) to evaluate and monitor emissions resulting from the collection of municipal solid waste system. This user-friendly tool has been developed in the frame of European project “RES NOVAE” with the aim of providing the city with a ‘smart governance’. Smart governance is a cornerstone of smart city: it means stakeholders cooperating in decision making process and public or social service. Indeed, the calculator is suitable for both public decision makers and citizens. Policy maker can use the CFC proposed to support greenhouse gases monitoring as well as to provide an estimation of a potential change in emissions as...

RELATED PAPERS

Jovana Grahovac

Dianne Lefly

Annals of Forest Science

roberto canullo

2021 22nd International Conference on Computational Problems of Electrical Engineering (CPEE)

Marcin Jurczak

Proceedings

Ionut Marina

Frontiers in Neuroscience

Rosanna Squitti

Haematologica

Alanna Bezerra

JURNAL KEBIDANAN

Elise Putri

Docencia Politécnica

Eduardo Martínez Guerra

Vision Research

JOSE MANUEL GONZALEZ RAMIREZ

Evy Ratna Kartika Waty

Infection and Immunity

Robert Jacobson

Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action

Ashley Nguyen

Annals of the Entomological Society of America

Robert C . Adair

DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals)

Nehemias Pereira

MATEC Web of Conferences

Giorgi Mamuladze

Molecular Biology of the Cell

Andrea Graziani

2020 IEEE 14th International Conference on Compatibility, Power Electronics and Power Engineering (CPE-POWERENG)

Filipe Barata

arXiv (Cornell University)

Diaraf Seck

DergiPark (Istanbul University)

Dimitrios Triantaphyllou

Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases

RELATED TOPICS

  •   We're Hiring!
  •   Help Center
  • Find new research papers in:
  • Health Sciences
  • Earth Sciences
  • Cognitive Science
  • Mathematics
  • Computer Science
  • Academia ©2024

share this!

February 21, 2024

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility:

fact-checked

Study: Replacing plastics with biodegradable alternatives would lead to significant carbon emissions reduction

by Engineering

New study reveals significant reduction in carbon emissions by replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable alternatives

Plastic pollution and its impact on the environment have become critical global issues in recent years. In response, the research teams have conducted a study to evaluate the carbon emissions associated with both traditional plastic products and biodegradable plastic products (BPPs). Their findings demonstrate a substantial reduction in carbon emissions by replacing traditional plastics with biodegradable alternatives, highlighting the potential for a more sustainable future.

The study, published in Engineering , compared four stages of the life cycle of traditional plastics and BPPs to determine their respective carbon emissions. These stages include raw materials acquisition, plastic production, product manufacturing, and waste disposal.

The research teams analyzed 1000 traditional plastic products, such as plastic bags , lunch boxes, and cups, and found that their carbon emissions ranged from 52.09 to 150.36 kg CO 2 eq. In contrast, 1000 similar BPPs emitted only 21.06 to 56.86 kg CO 2 eq, representing a remarkable reduction of 13.53% to 62.19%.

The study also revealed that the plastic production and waste disposal stages had the most significant impact on carbon emissions for both traditional plastics and BPPs. Notably, BPPs showed substantial carbon reduction potential at the raw material acquisition stage. When considering waste disposal methods for BPPs, composting and anaerobic digestion emerged as the preferable options due to their positive environmental impact.

However, the high cost of biodegradable plastics poses a challenge for their widespread adoption. While the study highlights the environmental benefits of BPPs, it emphasizes the need for more economical production technologies and waste disposal methods to enhance the sustainability of biodegradable plastics.

According to the research team's calculations, the adoption of BPPs in China, replacing traditional plastic products like bags, meal boxes, and straws, could lead to a reduction of 1.03 × 10 6 to 1.10 × 10 8 kg CO 2 eq of carbon emissions annually. This significant reduction highlights the potential positive impact on the environment and the urgent need to prioritize the development and implementation of BPPs.

This study serves as a valuable reference for the sustainable development of the biodegradable plastics industry. Quantifying the environmental benefits of BPPs and identifying optimal waste disposal methods provides critical insights for policymakers, industry leaders, and researchers striving for a greener and more sustainable future.

Provided by Engineering

Explore further

Feedback to editors

global tourism carbon footprint

Research finds that neutering Rottweilers may affect their lifespan

2 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

Conduction-cooled accelerating cavity proves feasible for commercial applications

global tourism carbon footprint

Research explores the cooling effects of 'scuba-diving' in lizards

global tourism carbon footprint

Similar genetic elements underlie vocal learning in mammals

3 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

New York City ranks safest among big US cities for gun violence, new research reveals

global tourism carbon footprint

Targeting seed microbes to improve seed resilience

global tourism carbon footprint

Mercury rising: Study sheds new light on ancient volcanoes' environmental impact

global tourism carbon footprint

Unveiling rare diversity: The origin of heritable mutations in trees

global tourism carbon footprint

Scientists identify burned bodies using technique devised for extracting DNA from woolly mammoths, Neanderthals

global tourism carbon footprint

Astronomers measure heaviest black hole pair ever found

Relevant physicsforums posts, unlocking the secrets of prof. verschure's rosetta stones, popocatepetl volcano eruption, mexico.

Feb 28, 2024

Two Mag 5 Earthquakes on Mid-Atlantic Ridge

Feb 26, 2024

Iceland warming up again - quakes swarming

Feb 24, 2024

90,000-year-old human footprints found on Moroccan beach

Feb 8, 2024

Evidence of large submarine volcanic eruption 520 kyrs ago in Aegean

Jan 16, 2024

More from Earth Sciences

Related Stories

global tourism carbon footprint

Plastic in the UK: Practical and pervasive—but problematic

Nov 4, 2020

global tourism carbon footprint

Biodegradable plastic blends offer new options for disposal

Aug 29, 2018

global tourism carbon footprint

New circular economy roadmap reveals how to reduce plastic waste in India

Dec 7, 2023

global tourism carbon footprint

Using microbes for sustainable plastic production and biodegradation

Dec 11, 2023

global tourism carbon footprint

Plastic production via advanced recycling lowers greenhouse gas emissions

Oct 12, 2023

global tourism carbon footprint

Research shows biodegradable plastics are still harmful to fish

Oct 19, 2023

Recommended for you

global tourism carbon footprint

Study shows climate change disrupts seasonal flow of rivers

5 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

Wildfire smoke disproportionately affects California's Indigenous communities, new research shows

6 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

2023–24 El Niño likely to cause record-breaking average temperatures in some areas

8 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

Scientists create new idea on how to hack a warming planet: drying the upper atmosphere

14 hours ago

global tourism carbon footprint

An 80-mph speed record for glacier fracture helps reveal the physics of ice sheet collapse

Let us know if there is a problem with our content.

Use this form if you have come across a typo, inaccuracy or would like to send an edit request for the content on this page. For general inquiries, please use our contact form . For general feedback, use the public comments section below (please adhere to guidelines ).

Please select the most appropriate category to facilitate processing of your request

Thank you for taking time to provide your feedback to the editors.

Your feedback is important to us. However, we do not guarantee individual replies due to the high volume of messages.

E-mail the story

Your email address is used only to let the recipient know who sent the email. Neither your address nor the recipient's address will be used for any other purpose. The information you enter will appear in your e-mail message and is not retained by Phys.org in any form.

Newsletter sign up

Get weekly and/or daily updates delivered to your inbox. You can unsubscribe at any time and we'll never share your details to third parties.

More information Privacy policy

Donate and enjoy an ad-free experience

We keep our content available to everyone. Consider supporting Science X's mission by getting a premium account.

E-mail newsletter

global tourism carbon footprint

  • The Star ePaper
  • Subscriptions
  • Manage Profile
  • Change Password
  • Manage Logins
  • Manage Subscription
  • Transaction History
  • Manage Billing Info
  • Manage For You
  • Manage Bookmarks
  • Package & Pricing

Five trends in 2024 for Malaysia as mandatory ESG reporting becomes global norm

Wednesday, 28 Feb 2024

Related News

Capital A ESG ratings reach soaring heights

Capital A ESG ratings reach soaring heights

Establishing a sustainable coalition in asean, unwto becomes ‘un tourism’ to mark new era for global sector.

AS businesses around the world face increasing pressure to incorporate sustainability practices into their operations, governments are taking proactive steps to enforce mandatory ESG reporting. Malaysia, as a significant player in the South-East Asian region, is no exception to this global trend. To shed light on the implications of mandatory ESG reporting in Malaysia and the emerging trends within the country, StarESG turned to STACS founder and managing director Benjamin Soh, who leads STACS as Asia’s leading ESG data and technology company. Soh shares his insights on the impact of new regulations on corporate behavior, available resources for small-medium enterprises (SMEs) to navigate ESG reporting complexities, and his predictions for the most exciting trends expected to shape the ESG landscape in Malaysia throughout this year.

Soh: “ESGpedia also enables companies to receive insights from AI-harmonised data to inform their ESG strategy and meet rising stakeholder expectations, as well as leverage ESG solutions and services to drive sustainability efforts.”

What impact do you foresee these new regulations having on corporate behaviour and accountability?

Businesses in Malaysia, and South-East Asia, are seeing an increase in ESG reporting regulations, not just for listed companies, but also progressively extending to SMEs. Publicly listed companies are increasingly expected to comply with compulsory ESG reporting, facing stricter rules to adhere to ESG policies.

For Malaysia, Bursa Malaysia enhanced the Sustainability Reporting Framework to standardise ESG disclosures, encouraging reporting against international best practices with common indicators and bolstering investor confidence since 2016.

Malaysia has also made efforts to ensure that its SMEs are not overlooked or left behind in the process. Capital Markets Malaysia (CMM) recently launched the Simplified ESG Disclosure Guide (SEDG) to assist SMEs in adopting ESG practices, offering a simplified and standardised set of disclosures aligned with global and local frameworks. While not mandatory, the SEDG helps SMEs stay competitive, respond to stakeholder demands, and qualify for incentives tied to enhanced ESG disclosures.

COP28 has set the precedence for an increased need to tackle environmental concerns, especially with the announcement of the country’s Budget 2024 last October. With a focus on incorporating sustainability into economic policies, the measures presented aim to drive sustainable growth for Malaysia to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.

Additionally, it set up the foundation for the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) and the New Industrial Master Plan 2030 (NIMP) which will be guided through its newly launched National Industry Environmental, Social and Governance Framework (i-ESG Framework).

Malaysia is seen to be expediting its ESG efforts amidst Asia’s growing focus on sustainability in recent years, evolving positively to reflect its broader commitment to sustainable development and responsible corporate social responsibility

What support or resources are available to help SMEs navigate the ESG reporting landscape and ensure they meet the necessary requirements?

Key challenges most businesses, especially SMEs, face are directly related to the lack of resources and digital tools readily accessible for seamless adoption to empower them in their ESG reporting and sustainability journey. Notably, a huge gap between the demand for ESG data in relation to the availability of data exists in the Asia Pacific region.Today, the responsibility for reporting ESG performance, encompassing supply chain activities, lies with publicly listed companies. This involves the demanding process of collecting data from various sources such as SMEs, suppliers, clients and other stakeholders within the supply chain.

In the Malaysian context, where SMEs dominate the market and supply chains, this challenge is particularly pronounced. SMEs face difficulties in commencing their ESG disclosure journey efficiently, mainly attributed to the absence of streamlined digital processes, sufficient resources and requisite expertise.

With the recent announcements of its i-ESG Framework, Malaysia is aiming to make sustainability practices more feasible for a broader range of businesses.

What are five of the most exciting developments in the ESG space that we can expect to see in 2024?

> Legitimacy of ESG claims and mitigating greenwashing: 2024 is expected to be pivotal in refining the approach towards corporate responsibility. A key aspect of this shift is the increased scrutiny of greenwashing practices, which is used to describe superficial or misleading claims about a company’s environmental efforts.

> Supply chain transparency, especially in emerging markets: The importance of supply chain sustainability as a 2024 ESG trend is increasingly coming to the forefront. Bloomberg recently published an insightful analysis of how Apple’s supply chain is on a collision course with climate change, highlighting it and other multinationals’ massive exposure to Asia amid increasing extreme weather events and carbon-intensive economies in that region.

> Technology and data-driven approaches to ESG: Data transparency and existing ESG technology solutions in the region are paramount to facilitate progress tracking, and reporting to ensure compliance with ESG regulations, and taking action towards decarbonisation.

> ESG fintech and AI to remain key drivers: The intersection of financial technology and sustainability is rapidly emerging as a critical component in the transition towards a more environmentally friendly economy. As we look to 2024, the application of AI in sustainability efforts is expected to grow substantially. AI’s ability to aggregate and harmonise ESG data, optimise resource usage, and enhance energy efficiency stands as a testament to its potential in reducing environmental impacts.

> Increasing digital tools and resources for SMEs: No longer confined to large corporations and financial institutions, ESG reporting regulations are now increasingly extending to non-listed companies and SMEs. A plethora of new digital tools and resources are emerging to serve this need, including from Singapore.

What digital tools and resources are available to help SMEs comply with disclosure requirements?

STACS’s ESG data and technology platform, ESGpedia, provides businesses and SMEs with an end-to-end suite of sustainability solutions to help them achieve their ESG goals regardless of their business needs, and ensure compliance towards ESG regulations.

While MNCs have the capacity and capabilities to invest in ESG consultancy services and initiatives, this is not the case for SMEs. As such, a significant gap emerges between the growing data needs for comprehensive ESG reporting from publicly listed companies, and the actual availability of such data in SMEs and entities in their supply chain, presenting a notable challenge in fostering ESG compliance.

As the platform is aimed for simple adoption amongst SMEs, the barriers to entry are kept low — the SEDG is fully integrated and digitalised on ESGpedia for free usage by Malaysian SMEs to start on their ESG reporting journey. The digitalised SEDG tool will be in the form of a digital assessment, equipped with guidance notes to provide SMEs with additional information on the requirements of the disclosure.

Malaysian SMEs can also use the ESGpedia platform’s embedded carbon calculator in accordance with GHG Protocol and ISO14064 methodologies to attain an automated carbon calculation and greater insights into their GHG emissions.

ESGpedia also provides a free ESG Starter Tool kit for SMEs to take the next steps towards ESG reporting. This enables SMEs to leverage digitalisation to easily kickstart their ESG reporting journey in accordance with their local reporting requirements, and future-proof against looming ESG regulations globally.

The ESGpedia platform employs an AI-powered engine that provides two key approaches:

> ESGpedia Nexus helps companies to comply with increasing ESG regulations, by empowering them to build and share their ESG profiles through the ESG reporting portal with an in-built greenhouse gas (GHG) calculator, get insights through the dashboard and analytics and engage with a marketplace of sustainability solutions to take active steps towards decarbonisation.

> ESGpedia Intelligence enables banks, investors, insurers and corporates to access a complete picture of aggregated ESG data via AI-powered harmonisation of unstructured ESG data, supporting better decision-making.

What steps can SMEs take to ensure transparency and sustainability within their supply chains?

SMEs can leverage existing digital programs and solutions to create their ESG profiles and amplify them on a global marketplace. By doing so, corporates and MNCs, especially those in advanced markets under regulatory pressure, will be able to seek out these sustainable SMEs and use them in their supply chains.

One such program is the ESBN Asia Pacific Green Deal digital assessment launched by the ESCAP Sustainable Business Network (ESBN). The free program empowers businesses and SMEs across the Asia Pacific region to take the first step towards ESG reporting by providing an incentive program that awards badges as recognition to companies that have taken steps towards disclosing their data and showing improvement in their ESG efforts. The badges are available in Gold, Silver and Green to recognise various tiers of efforts. The ESBN was launched last year in May on ESGpedia in the form of a digital assessment with guidance notes to simplify the process for SMEs.

ESGpedia currently serves as the primary technology that powers the ESBN Asia-Pacific Green Deal digital platform and the Asean Single Accesspoint for ESG Data pilot initiative, both of which aim to empower businesses and SMEs across Asia towards ESG reporting and bridge the data gap in the Asia Pacific region.

In the ESG data landscape, AI empowers the process of collecting, cleaning and harmonising data. It also offers predictive capabilities that can help with climate risk evaluation and decision-making.

AI-powered companies like STACS, Unravel Carbon, MioTech and Nexus FrontierTech are examples of technology firms on the cutting edge of building platforms that help corporates, SMEs and financial institutions bring transparency and accountability to the ESG performance of their operations, supply chains and investment portfolios.

Through AI, businesses are better equipped to tackle ESG data challenges, which include understanding resources and gaining bargaining power with suppliers, while enabling digital compliance with ESG regulatory requirements across Europe and Asia. For companies in Malaysia, this can be a powerful tool because it allows them to streamline their ESG data collection, ensuring higher accuracy and consistency in reporting.

Tags / Keywords: STACS , trends , Benjamin Soh , NETR , SEDG , disclosure , sustainability reporting , ESG , technology , AI , fintech

Found a mistake in this article?

Report it to us.

Thank you for your report!

Five trends in 2024 for Malaysia as mandatory ESG reporting becomes global norm

ADDITIONAL FEATURES ON PRIHATIN APP

Next in nation.

global tourism carbon footprint

Trending in News

Air pollutant index, highest api readings, select state and location to view the latest api reading.

  • Select Location

Source: Department of Environment, Malaysia

Others Also Read

Best viewed on Chrome browsers.

global tourism carbon footprint

We would love to keep you posted on the latest promotion. Kindly fill the form below

Thank you for downloading.

We hope you enjoy this feature!

IMAGES

  1. Carbon Footprint of Tourism

    global tourism carbon footprint

  2. The carbon footprint of tourism revealed (it's bigger than we thought)

    global tourism carbon footprint

  3. Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in world first

    global tourism carbon footprint

  4. How to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Your Travels

    global tourism carbon footprint

  5. Carbon Footprint Of Tourism Sector Carbon Footprint Infographic

    global tourism carbon footprint

  6. Carbon Footprint of Tourism

    global tourism carbon footprint

COMMENTS

  1. The carbon footprint of global tourism

    We find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO 2 e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global ...

  2. Carbon Footprint of Tourism

    Projections indicate that tourism emissions could reach 6.5 billion metric tons by 2025. This represents a 44% increase from 2013, and is equivalent to about 13% of current global greenhouse gas emissions. For those emissions that aren't yet avoidable, carbon offsetting should be used to complement sustainability practices and reduce tourism ...

  3. Tourism's Carbon Emissions Measured in Landmark Report ...

    Tourism's Carbon Emissions Measured in Landmark Report Launched At COP25. All Regions; 4 Dec 2019 Madrid, Spain, 4 December 2019 - Transport-related emissions from tourism are expected to account for 5.3% of all man-made CO2 emissions by 2030, up from 5% in 2016, a landmark new report from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) and the International Transport Forum (ITF) shows.

  4. The carbon footprint of tourism revealed (it's bigger than we thought)

    Our results show that tourism-related emissions increased by around 15% over that period, from 3.9 gigatonnes (Gt) of carbon-dioxide equivalent (CO₂-e) to 4.5Gt. This rise primarily came from ...

  5. Transforming tourism for climate action

    Climate Action. The Glasgow Declaration was officially launched at COP26 UN Climate Change Conference. It proposes a coordinated plan for tourism to support the global commitment to halve emissions by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050 and requests signatories to make tangible commitments around planning, measuring and reporting.

  6. Climate change

    The report provides insights into the evolution of tourism demand across the different global regions up to the year 2030. It also presents the expected transport-related CO 2 emissions of the tourism sector against the current ambition scenario for the decarbonization of transport and sets the basis to scale up climate action and ambition in the tourism sector.

  7. Tourism responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas ...

    The research finds that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism's annual global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5bn tonnes of CO2 equivalent. This figure is four times higher than previous estimates and accounts for 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, the research finds. The rise is largely driven by an increased demand for goods and ...

  8. Global Tourism Has a Bigger Share of Carbon Emissions Than Thought

    International tourism accounts for 8 percent of all carbon emissions worldwide—about three times more than previously thought, according to a study released yesterday. The study, published in ...

  9. Quantifying Tourism Emissions for Destinations

    The main driver for the growth of global tourism carbon footprint is primarily due to a strong increase in tourism consumption, at an annual 7% during the study period, which outpaced all carbon intensity reductions through technology development (-2.7% annually). Since, the number of tourists has continued to increase between 2013-2019, with ...

  10. Tourism Accounts for 8 Percent of Global CO2 Emissions

    The global carbon footprint of tourism is almost four times larger than previously thought — accounting for 8 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new analysis of data from 160 countries published in the journal Nature Climate Change. The industry's biggest emissions contributors are transport, shopping, and ...

  11. Travel Industry Takes Crucial First Step Toward Combating Climate

    The travel industry is a large contributor to global carbon emissions, with a footprint estimated between 8 and 11 percent of total greenhouse gases, according to the World Travel & Tourism ...

  12. Tourism's carbon impact three times larger than estimated

    A new study says global tourism accounts for 8% of carbon emissions, far larger than previously thought. Home. News. ... their carbon footprint from tourism increase 13% for every 10% rise in ...

  13. Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in world first

    Between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 Gt CO2-e -- four times more than previous estimates -- accounting for about 8 percent of global greenhouse gas ...

  14. Tourism's carbon impact three times larger than estimated

    A new study says global tourism accounts for 8% of carbon emissions, far larger than previously thought. ... their carbon footprint from tourism increase 13% for every 10% rise in income. The ...

  15. [PDF] The carbon footprint of global tourism

    The carbon footprint of global tourism. Tourism contributes significantly to global gross domestic product, and is forecast to grow at an annual 4%, thus outpacing many other economic sectors. However, global carbon emissions related to tourism are currently not well quantified. Here, we quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 ...

  16. Global tourism's carbon footprint is four times bigger than ...

    The increasing carbon footprint of global tourism between 2009 and 2013 represents a 3% annual growth in emissions, according to University of Sydney researchers. Their paper was published Monday ...

  17. Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in world first

    The study found tourism is forecast to grow at an annual four percent—outpacing many other economic sectors. Between 2009 and 2013, tourism 's global carbon footprint increased from 3.9 to 4.5 ...

  18. World Travel & Tourism Industry Pledges Climate Neutrality

    13 August 2018. Article. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) has signed up to the United Nations Climate Neutral Now initiative with a pledge to measure its greenhouse gas emissions, reduce what it can and offset the rest, while promoting the same climate-friendly regimen to its 150 members worldwide. This pledge adds momentum to global ...

  19. The carbon footprint of global tourism

    We find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCOe, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors. The majority of this footprint is exerted by and in high-income countries.

  20. The carbon footprint of global tourism

    TL;DR: In this article, the authors quantify tourism-related global carbon flows between 160 countries, and their carbon footprints under origin and destination accounting perspectives, and find that, between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 CO2e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

  21. Global tourism carbon footprint quantified in

    image: In 2013, international travel caused a carbon footprint of about 1 Gt CO2-e, or 23 percent of the global carbon footprint of tourism. Arrows point in the direction of embodied carbon flow ...

  22. It's time to limit how often we can travel abroad

    The tourism sector generates around ... But, to have the best chance of preventing temperature rise from overshooting 2 Celsius, the average global carbon footprint ...

  23. What are Carbon Footprint and Carbon Footprint Calculators?

    For this study, a content analysis of national tourism plans was implemented to identify if the carbon footprint of tourism has been assessed, establish a unified approach to measure tourism emissions and determine what level of tourism decarbonisation strategies are currently in place. ... Temporary reduction in daily global CO2 emissions ...

  24. The Carbon Footprint of Air Travel and How to Live a More Grounded Life

    The people with the biggest carbon footprint from air travel are, in global terms, a privileged minority. A disproportionate number of them are from the United States. The United States emits more carbon dioxide from aviation than any other country, more than the emissions of the next 10 largest consumers of aviation fuel combined.

  25. Sustainability

    In recent decades, climate change has demanded more and more attention. Consumers have the power to influence the carbon footprint of goods and services through their purchasing decisions, but to do this they need to learn more. To address this need, it is necessary to develop online questionnaires able to make people aware of which activities have a greater environmental impact in their daily ...

  26. Carbon Footprint Management Market Set to Triple to $33

    The global Carbon Footprint Management market, currently valued at an impressive US$11.6 Billion in 2022, is anticipated to experience robust growth, reaching a projected US$33 Billion by the year ...

  27. Study: Replacing plastics with biodegradable alternatives would lead to

    Plastic pollution and its impact on the environment have become critical global issues in recent years. In response, the research teams have conducted a study to evaluate the carbon emissions ...

  28. Five trends in 2024 for Malaysia as mandatory ESG reporting becomes

    Five trends in 2024 for Malaysia as mandatory ESG reporting becomes global norm Nation ... the measures presented aim to drive sustainable growth for Malaysia to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. ...