ETOA Climate Action Workshop
February 2025
Obstacles to decarbonisation are familiar. This workshop will focus on opportunities to accelerate progress, and implications for public and private sectors: international institutions to destinations; multinationals to small businesses. See: Briefing.
We invite delegates to contribute ideas and insight to help us reach actionable conclusions which will inform ETOA’s advocacy, support materials and partnership strategy, and our contribution to policy development.
Key Topics
1) Operator influence on demand, e.g. encourage longer/slower itineraries
2) Operator influence on supply e.g. contract terms that support reporting needs
3) Product offer and marketing support
4) Risk management: impact on investment and insurance; competitive landscape.
5) Quick wins for businesses who have not yet developed climate action plans.
6) Should measurement tools be free and open source?
7) How will we achieve sufficient harmonisation of core ESG method and metrics?[1]
8) What is required to support transparency and comparability?
9) Given that micro and SMEs are within larger companies’ supply chains, how will we ensure they are able to provide the data their clients require for ESG reporting?
10) Policy that helps to de-risk transition, and supports investment in green fuel and power
11) Integration of tourism with Clean Industrial Deal and Sustainable Transport Investment Plan
[1] From Mission Letter to new Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Policy: “As we head to 2030, each Member of College will ensure the delivery of the EU targets and objectives defined for that year, as well as of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals within their policy areas. The College as a whole will be responsible for the overall implementation of the Goals.” ETOA attended UN Tourism launch event in 2024 : https://www.unwto.org/events/inaugural_event_ESG. Other resources: UN Tourism: https://www.unwto.org/tourism-statistics/environmental-social-governance-tourism-technical-information
12) What will incentivise change: financial incentives or penalties; recognition; competitive advantage; sectoral self-interest; other?
13) Pending legal requirements and/or financial signals, are they any quick wins?
14) CSRD: Are we prepared for sustainability reporting? e.g. Double materiality assessment: how to assess how our financial performance is affected by sustainability, and what impact our operations have on society and the environment.
15) Green Claims: Do we make environmental claims on our websites or in other marketing materials? If so, do we have what we need to back them up?
Obstacles and Opportunities
1) Ability to make climate action a priority
2) Risk of vacating commercially profitable space vs. risk of inaction
3) Cost of producing to standards higher than what is legally mandated
4) Designing, marketing and sourcing lower-carbon product, including ‘slow tourism’
5) Complexity of accreditation and certification
6) Cost savings consequent to carbon efficiency
7) Benefits of pre-emptive compliance
8) Appeal of progressive policy to prospective employees
9) While niche opportunities exist and are growing, in general consumer demand will not be sufficient to drive transition to lower carbon holidays: price and ratings will continue to dominate decision factors.
10) Capacity to build consent for necessary change
11) Developing and executing long-term decarbonisation and adaptation strategy
12) Speed of decision-making and implementation
13) Impact of lobbying: necessary insight vs. narrow interests
14) Carbon literacy, and positive reasons for change to support in-house decision making
15) Board and management support, and in-house champions
16) Sufficient political will and power
17) Support tools and information, including good practice hubs
18) Other peer group knowledge-sharing and encouragement
19) Operators and destinations collaborate on decarbonisation of itineraries or services
20) Case studies showing what can be done
21) Application of AI on measurement, reporting and emissions reduction
If you would like to learn more about ETOA and climate action, click here or email sustainability@etoa.org