International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP) President Professor Geoffrey Lipman gave the keynote address last week at the Arab Air Carriers Organization Annual Assembly in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
This is the second part of his presentation:
Let me talk a little about Green Growth and Travelism, the potential for this to become the new norm and then somewhat sadly, of the SUN program – the Strong Universal Network. Sadly because its inspiration, my friend Maurice Strong, arguably the father of sustainable development passed away just as I set off for Jeddah. Ironically just as delegates were heading to Paris to advance what he started as Secretary General of the 1992 Rio Earth Summit.
The environmental evolution is well known – the impacts of continual global economic growth on basic resources – particularly food and water: the social inclusion gap, the massive reliance on fossil fuels to power our globalizing world: pressures on biodiversity and the final straw existential climate change.
Bottom line – reduce dependence on fossil fuel: usher in an era of renewable energy: positively shift economies to attack poverty and reduce income gaps: practice biodiversity and resource conservation and use the power of the internet and technology innovation to live smartly (and happily if you can emulate the Bhutan model). Do this at a time when the world population is jumping from 7-9 billion, with a growing consumption hungry, middle class and a geo-economic shift to Asia. And do it in a way that keeps temperature growth no more than 2 degrees.
This global debate and related policy framework has been evolving over the past half century – with a series of Declarations and Conventions (like Rio’s Agenda 21, Kyoto and the MDGs).
2015 will see 3 Heads of State Summits that try to reshape our world order onto a Green Growth trajectory. In Addis they agreed the financing rules for a $100 billion a year transfer of funds from rich to poor. In New York they agreed 17 Sustainable Development Goals with 169 targets for 2030 and in Paris they will fix voluntary carbon reduction targets for 2020 with a vision of ratcheting it up then to achieve the magical 2 degrees by 2050.
Airlines are no strangers to this sustainability world. With IATA and ATAG the industry has done a masterful job of maintaining solidarity, establishing principles and priorities, engaging closely with ICAO and broadly positioning to pick up and adopt Paris in 2016. My take is that this will buy another 5 years.
The big challenge will come at two levels
First the greening of the tourism value chain is not so well organized behind the networking events and well written declarations. And much of its focus will be in the hands of others – smart cities: nature based solutions and small island programs for example. And with the SDG’s a plethora of targets and actors will come into play – many of them small businesses …way beyond the tightly controlled system you have been engaged in to date. And solutions will increasingly be determined at the community level – including meeting carbon targets.
Second the more demanding question is longer term. Despite the excellent, ATAG led, emission reduction accomplishments to date, including the huge number of environmental improvements in airline systems and operational processes, as well as the aircraft and ATC technology advances, we will remain increasingly exposed. As one of the only sectors without a currently evident alternative energy capability and with a powerful growth curve, Already the highly regarded New Climate Energy Group, of global environment leaders, has labelled Paris commitments as falling well short of the 2 degree line and singling out aviation and maritime for special attention.
It will get worse.
There are some options – and you have them in your sights – biofuel, permit trading and what Bill Gates calls innovating out of the box. And you are clearly linking more closely with the broader travel value chain to show the “sustainability of the eco-system” that aviation drives – hospitality, infrastructure, retail and the like. I do not think it will go far enough, fast enough. It is complex and growing exponentially at the grass roots community level.
This future will be about actions – not declarations.
At the top level the challenges will be to reach out across traditional silos from aviation and tourism to trade, environment, land use, economy and the like. Fighting on growth, taxes and credits. About getting environmental and travel data aligned – to meet SDG and Climate targets. No benefit mantra, without a real impact assessment. About educating the next generation – in schools, universities and social media. These are the big battles.
But the real green growth delivery of this value chain will be on the ground in communities.
And this is where SUN could play a part – and airlines can be corporate social drivers.
The Strong Universal Network has been designed to help communities move down a Green Growth path, using Travelism (Travel & Tourism) as a vector. SUN will be a system of solar powered research hubs, assembled from containers and linked through the internet cloud.
They will be compact, efficient and low cost. They will house dedicated postgraduate support for communities and their travel stakeholders, to keep their Sustainable Development and Climate Targets on track. I have provided a small brochure – we will announce the first for the National Park in Belgium this week in Paris and look to have 200 in place around the world by 2020.
My last meeting with Maurice Strong was a few weeks ago in Ottawa where we talked about the potential that this kind of community led green growth could have if it were really supported by an engaged Travelism sector. About organizations tracking exponentially growing climate knowledge bases and boosting education. About hotel chains supporting local green cultural programs and green jobs. About airlines promoting and aggregating small business activity into biofuel and carbon credit providers. All focused from a Strong Universal Network. Above all about sending a powerful grassroots message on the leading role that the Travelism sector intends to play in the long term Green Growth transformation I and my colleagues are determined to carry on this vision. I hope there are enthusiasts here. This region has more sun than anywhere on the planet. We would welcome the opportunity to engage with AACO and its members on a SUN program that will contribute to a sustainable future.