In a message to Gloria Guevara, President & CEO of the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), Patricia Espinosa, the Executive Secretary of the UN Climate Agency (UNFCCC), congratulated WTTC for its continuing leadership commitment on Climate and Sustainability issues, even while responding strongly to the COVID pandemic.
“At a time when the Travel & Tourism sector is battling with the devastating impact of COVID-19, I am delighted that the World Travel & Tourism Council continues to focus on climate and other sustainability issues. There is no doubt that the climate challenge is presently outpacing us and requires urgent, global action. Travel & Tourism has an enormous role to play and can have, through its actions, positive impacts. As the UN Secretary-General Guterres has said, it is imperative that we rebuild the sector in a “safe, equitable and climate friendly” manner. Business as usual is not an option.
In this context, I congratulate the WTTC on the Climate Friendly Travel Registry launched jointly with SUNx Malta and welcome the opportunities that this offers to Travel & Tourism organisations to develop, register and promote their climate strategies, plans and achievements in support of the goals of the Paris Agreement.
I look forward to seeing Travel & Tourism organisations participating in this sectoral Climate Friendly Travel Registry as well as redoubling their efforts to ensure a climate neutral and resilient world by 2050 at the latest.”
SUNx Malta President Professor Geoffrey Lipman in welcoming this development noted the strong relationship between Climate Friendly Travel(CFT) - low carbon; SDG linked: Paris 1.5 aligned and the UN 2030 (SDG) / 2050 (Paris Agreement) Roadmap for the future of humanity.
“The CFT Registry is a vital support for companies and communities to get behind WTTC’s leadership on Travel & Tourism Climate Resilience – it is the way to turn climate declarations into UNFCCC compliant action and deliver practical programs for greenhouse gas reduction and for building in sustainability. We are delighted to work with Gloria and the WTTC team to roll out this initiative to Travel and Tourism stakeholders as we look towards the COP 26 session in Glasgow at the end of the year.”
