During the UNWTO Assembly in Chengdu, these two industry thought leaders agreed to deepen their longstanding cooperation on Green Growth and Quality, exercised to date for both as executive board members in the International Coalition of Tourism Partners (ICTP).

Lipman – with leadership spells in IATA, WTTC and UNWTO -is known for his championing of Green Tourism over the past 25 years, with his friend and mentor the late Maurice Strong, the man behind UNEP, the Brundtland Commission, and the 1992 Rio Earth Summit. During the Assembly, Ambassador Dho praised Lipman as the “ST-EP Father” of UNWTO’s flagship poverty reduction program.

St. Ange, fresh from his campaign for UNWTO Secretary-General, has agreed to serve as vice Chair of SUNx the Strong Universal Network, with a fixation on climate change, a focus on the next generation and a strategic global response network for smart learning, innovation, and resilience. He also agreed to help promote the SUNx concept of Impact-Travel, as a template for good and bad impacts to be measured and managed coherently; with green growth at the core; and 2050 Paris proofed.

Lipman said “SUNx will build a community of smart, young, graduate-level champions, as a legacy to the vision of Maurice Strong, to help keep the eXistential reality of climate change at the top of the strategic agenda for our sector and to make our planet cooler.”

St.Ange said “ I am honoured to be involved as Vice Chair of the SUNx Movement.
This Good Impact – Travel for a Cooler Planet mission is a needed one. The world has woken up believing in Sustainable Tourism Development. This is a great move and is appreciated. As Dr Taleb Rifai, the Secretary-General of the UNWTO said in Chengdu China during the General Assembly “Sustainability is to Sustain Life” it is our duty now more than ever before to rally forces to save our planet and in so doing sustain Life”.